A Syrian man has been ordered held on suspicion of murder and membership in a terrorist organization in connection with Friday’s knife attack in Solingen, Germany, that left three dead and eight wounded, The Associated Press reported.
According to the news agency, the judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered the man, a 26-year-old identified as Issa Al H., held pending further investigation and a possible indictment.
The ruling came after federal prosecutors said that the suspect shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.
The ruling came after the suspect turned himself in, saying that he was responsible for the attack, police said, according to AP. He is also suspected of attempted murder and serious bodily injury, prosecutors said.
The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken Sunday from the police station in Solingen for the initial court appearance.
He “shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State” and on the basis of his “radical Islamic convictions” decided “to kill the largest possible number of those he considers unbelievers” at the festival, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement quoted by AP.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday, saying on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians, and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks for several years and especially since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7.
The country's domestic intelligence chief warned that the risk of such assaults is "real and higher than it has been for a long time".
In late October, police in the western German city of Essen arrested a man who plotted to attack a pro-Israel demonstration.
In December, a 15-year-old boy was arrested in western Germany on suspicion of planning a possible attack on a Christmas market.
Weeks later German police arrested three people over an alleged attack plot targeting the cathedral in Cologne on New Year's Eve.
In late May, German authorities arrested two men suspected of plotting a knife attack on worshippers at a synagogue in the southwestern city of Heidelberg.
In June, an Iraqi man who is accused of standing by to carry out attacks for the Islamic State (ISIS) group after he arrived in Germany in 2022 was arrested in Esslingen, near Stuttgart.