Tourist attacked: knife attack at the memorial: prosecution calls for life imprisonment

The Syrian was guilty of attempted malicious murder for base motives, grievous bodily harm and attempted membership in a terrorist organization abroad, the federal prosecutor’s office said after a three-month trial. He became radicalized on the Internet. The crime was planned and “characterized by particular brutality, dangerousness and closeness to the completion of the crime.”

The defendant traveled from Leipzig to Berlin on February 21, 2025 to carry out an attack on a person in the name of the so-called Islamic State (IS), according to the federal prosecutor’s office. He specifically chose the Holocaust memorial not far from the Brandenburg Gate and offered himself as a member to IS via messenger communication. In the stele field he made a long cut on the throat of a now 31-year-old with the intent to kill. The Spaniard barely survived. To this day he is unable to work and is receiving psychological treatment.

Prosecutor against the application of juvenile criminal law

In the case of the 19-year-old at the time of the crime, it was not juvenile criminal law that was to be applied, but rather general criminal law, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office continued in its plea. He is a “young adult who has developed appropriately for his age”. He had already made self-determined decisions in Syria and then managed to escape without any caregivers.

The defense attorney, on the other hand, said that at the time of the crime, his client had not yet completed his development into an adult. Radicalization is evidence of an “immature spirit”. The then 19-year-old followed the instructions of an unknown representative of the Islamic State. Contact with the man came about online while watching IS videos. His client was recruited and trained as a “willing executor”. Now education is necessary.

Defendant expressed regret

On the 15th day of the trial, the defendant admitted to “grabbing a person” and giving him a large cut. “I regretted it within a second of the crime,” he continued. The trip to Berlin came about under pressure from a chat partner. This man was “the leader of the act” – “but the responsibility lies with me”. He asks for forgiveness.

The 20-year-old, who came to Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor refugee and lived in accommodation in Leipzig, turned himself in about two and a half hours after the crime. He has been in custody since his arrest.