The boyfriend who fled Ireland following the killing of American woman Jamey Carney was previously refused asylum in the country, reports claim.
Ireland was horrified this week following the brutal killing of mother Jamey Carney, who relocated to the scenic town of Killarney, where she had moved with her daughter around five years ago from New York.
According to The Irish Times, the 43-year-old American woman had been suffocated to death and had suffered head injuries consistent with an assault.
The Irish Gardaí police force is currently attempting to locate “person of interest” and Jordanian national Ahmad Al-Saqar, who was in a romantic relationship with Carney prior to her death. The two are said to have met around a year and a half ago at a pro-Palestinian protest in Ireland.
On Friday, the Irish Mirror reported that Al-Saqar had previously been refused asylum in Ireland but was allowed to stay in the country while appealing the decision.
Gardaí are reported to believe that Al-Saqar had been living in Ireland for the past two years and that, most recently, he had been residing with Carney in her Killarney home.
Following Carney’s death, Al-Saqar reportedly fled to Turkey. It is feared that he may already have reached his home country of Jordan, which does not have an extradition treaty with Ireland.
Irish police said they are currently coordinating with Europol and Interpol to obtain any information on his whereabouts from Turkish officials.
Prior to her death, Ms Carney had documented her experiences with dating a man from Jordan, writing on Instagram: “Dating an Arab be like… I’m his flower/warda and he’s my moon/qamar.” She also claimed that she was “learning Arabic” before she died.
Just two weeks ago, she posted a picture of herself wearing a keffiyeh alongside Al-Saqar, in front of an AI-generated depiction of the sandstone historical site of Petra in Jordan, with the caption: “Soon inshallah”.
The posts have led some on social media to claim that her death represented a case of “suicidal empathy”, a term popularised by evolutionary psychologist and author Gad Saad, which describes the excessive compassion often expressed by left-wing people, which enables others to take advantage of them.
The Irish Times reported that police are said to be concerned that, because Carney was American and the top suspect is from the Middle East, the story may be “seized upon by the US far-right and political figures intent on stirring racial tensions in the Republic.”
Immigration has become an increasingly hot-button issue in Ireland, like much of Western Europe. The mass migration imposed on the country by elites in Dublin has resulted in over one in five people now being foreign-born in the country. Protests and riots have become a frequent occurrence outside of facilities planned to host more asylum seekers.
The Mayor of Killarney, John O’Donoghue, said of the killing: “When this news broke yesterday, it was just like a dark cloud came over the town.”
Local Councillor Niall O’Callaghan added: “We’re devastated, we send deepest sympathy to the family… I’m really sad and disappointed that this has happened to someone who was living in our community.”