A Berlin court jailed a Syrian man for 13 years over a jihadist-inspired knife attack on a tourist at the city’s Holocaust memorial, a case that inflamed Germany’s migration debate.
BERLIN: A Berlin court has sentenced a 20-year-old Syrian man to 13 years in prison for a jihadist-inspired knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital’s Holocaust memorial. The defendant, identified only as Wassim Al M., was convicted of attempted murder, grievous bodily harm and attempted membership of a terrorist organisation.
Presiding judge Doris Husch said Al M. committed the crime “in the name of the Islamic State (IS) group”. She noted the victim only survived because the knife missed major blood vessels by millimetres.
The court stated Al M. intended to “target a person of the Jewish faith”. He approached the 30-year-old victim from behind among the memorial’s concrete steles and inflicted a 14-centimetre-long cut to his throat.
The badly wounded victim managed to stagger out before collapsing. Prosecutors said Al M. had “internalised IS 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. The suspect had travelled to Berlin from Leipzig, motivated by his support for IS and “driven by the escalation of the Middle East conflict”.
Prosecutors said he sent a photo of himself to IS members via a messaging service shortly before the attack, offering his services. “He wanted to kill,” prosecutor Michael Neuhaus told AFP.
Al M. was arrested when he returned to the scene with blood stains on his hands, carrying a copy of the Koran and a prayer rug. During the trial, he confessed and said the crime was motivated by radicalisation.
“My shame is too deep, I ask for forgiveness,” he told the court, according to his lawyer. The judges ruled to treat him as an adult based on his emotional and psychological maturity at the time of the attack.
The February 2025 assault shocked Germany two days before a general election, after a campaign centred heavily on immigration and security. The case inflamed an already heated national debate on migration.
Germany is home to around a million Syrians, many of whom arrived during the 2015 refugee influx. Debate has grown around whether wartime refugees should return, a position championed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
