A 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin this past Thursday over a knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital’s Holocaust memorial, which occurred just days before February’s general election, reported AFP.
The suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of supporting the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group and intending to “target a person of the Jewish faith” through the attack, according to the court.
He allegedly approached the 30-year-old victim from behind among the concrete steles of the memorial and “inflicted a 14-centimeter-long cut to his throat with a knife.” The victim, visiting with two friends, was badly injured but managed to stagger out before collapsing in front of the site.
Prosecutors told the court that Wassim Al M. had “internalized ISIS ideology, rejected the Western way of life, and was convinced that a holy war against infidels must be waged worldwide.” He shouted “Allahu akbar” after the attack, they said.
The suspect had travelled from Leipzig to carry out the assault, motivated by his support for ISIS and “driven by the escalation of the Middle East conflict.” Shortly before the attack, he allegedly sent a photo of himself to ISIS members via a messaging service and offered his services.
Police arrested him at the scene with blood stains on his hands. He was carrying a copy of the Quran and a prayer rug.
Germany has been on high alert for possible Islamist attacks for several years and especially since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
A week before the attack at the Holocaust memorial, a driver crashed a car into a labor union demonstration in central Munich, injuring 30 people, two of whom later died of their injuries.
Several weeks before that, a knife attack in Aschaffenburg left a two-year-old boy and a man dead. The suspect in that case was an Afghan whose asylum request had been rejected, escalating migration debates in Germany’s election campaign.
Earlier this month, German police arrested a 31-year-old Romanian citizen suspected of defacing dozens of vehicles and buildings in Hanau with swastikas painted in human blood.