A man kills three people at a town festival in Solingen. One day later, the police arrest a suspect. From the perspective of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, his motive is now clear.
After the knife attack in Solingen that left three people dead, the suspected perpetrator is in custody. An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe has issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of membership in the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) and murder, among other things, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced.
The 26-year-old Syrian shares the ideology of the terrorist organization IS and joined it at a time before August 23 that cannot currently be determined, the statement said. The asylum seeker’s deportation failed in 2023.
Because of his radical Islamist beliefs, he decided to kill as many people as possible at the Solingen city festival who he considered non-believers, according to the federal prosecutor’s office. “There he repeatedly and deliberately stabbed festival visitors in the neck and upper body with a knife from behind.”
Perpetrator was initially able to escape
Two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman died in the knife attack on Friday evening. Eight people were injured, four of them seriously, in the attack at an anniversary celebration for the 650th anniversary of the founding of the city of Solingen – the “Festival of Diversity”. The perpetrator then escaped in the tumult and initial panic. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to police, the 26-year-old Syrian turned himself in to investigators late on Saturday evening and said he was responsible for the attack. According to dpa information, he was wearing blood-stained clothing.
Politically, the attack has reignited debates about stricter knife laws and migration policy just over a week before the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia. Since the arrest of the Syrian suspect, there has been heated debate about deportations in particular. The Union is calling for cuts in asylum law.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz, for example, called for a freeze on the admission of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. He left open how this would be implemented legally. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) called for a stricter deportation policy for rejected asylum seekers.
All seriously injured are on the road to recovery
The suspect was flown to Karlsruhe by helicopter on Sunday afternoon. Two heavily armed police officers in special equipment brought the barefoot man to a convoy of vehicles. One of the officers pushed the head of the suspect, who was also handcuffed at the feet, down. In this crouched position, the man hardly took a step himself; the police carried him to the vehicles. It was also visible that he was wearing a white glove on his left hand. The reason for this was initially unclear.
The seriously injured victims are on the road to recovery. “All four patients still being treated as inpatients are over the hill,” said Thomas Standl, medical director and medical manager at the Solingen Municipal Hospital, to the television station Welt TV. The crime scene in the city center remained cordoned off on Sunday morning. Hundreds of people gathered for a memorial service in the morning.
Suspect should be deported
As “Spiegel” reported, the suspect came to Germany at the end of 2022 and applied for asylum. He was not previously known to the security authorities as an Islamist extremist. This information was confirmed to the German Press Agency.
The suspect’s asylum application was rejected. He was therefore to be deported to Bulgaria last year. He had entered the European Union via that country. However, since he had gone into hiding in Germany in the meantime, the deportation was no longer necessary for the time being, wrote the “Welt” newspaper – “Focus” also reported. The Syrian was later transferred to Solingen.
According to the so-called Dublin rules, the EU state responsible for an asylum application is usually the one where the asylum seeker first set foot on European soil – in this case, Bulgaria. If the person moves to another EU country such as Germany without permission, the country can submit a so-called transfer request to the country in question. If this is agreed, deportation can be ordered. However, the asylum seeker must then be deported within a certain period of time. If this is not possible, responsibility passes to the country that actually wanted to transfer him.
IS speaks of “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere”
The Islamic State claimed in a statement on its propaganda channel Amak that the attacker was an IS member and carried out the attack out of “revenge for Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere”. The attack was aimed at a “group of Christians”.
The Düsseldorf police also said they received a letter claiming responsibility from IS. Now they have to check whether this letter is genuine, said a police spokesman. Investigators pointed out that IS has often claimed responsibility for an attack in the past without there being any reliable evidence of collaboration with the perpetrator.
With “revenge for Muslims in Palestine,” IS is presumably referring to the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. Neither IS nor the terrorist network Al-Qaeda have alliances with the Islamist Hamas. However, according to security authorities, the dangers posed by terrorism and radicalization in the Islamic world have increased as a result of the months-long war in Gaza. Alongside the USA, Germany is one of Israel’s most important allies and also one of its most important arms suppliers.
Many cases of Islamist terrorism at the Federal Prosecutor’s Office
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office is responsible, among other things, for acts of Islamist-motivated terrorism. Federal Prosecutor General Jens Rommel identified this as one of the main threats to Germany in his office’s annual review. According to Rommel, of the more than 700 investigations initiated last year in the area of terrorism and state security, almost 500 concerned Islamist terrorism. “Germany continues to be a target for radicalized Islamists,” says the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. The spectrum ranges from individually radicalized perpetrators to conspiratorial terrorist cells.
On Saturday evening, the police had already searched a refugee shelter in Solingen “with the involvement of special forces”. A person who is said to have had contact with the perpetrator was taken to a police station, the Düsseldorf police said. According to current information, this is a witness.
A 15-year-old youth was arrested early on Saturday morning. One possible charge against him is failure to report planned crimes.
The crime in Solingen caused great concern throughout Germany. Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of a “terrible crime”. “We cannot accept something like this in our society and must never accept it. The full force of the law must be applied here,” said the SPD politician.
The Chancellor is expected in Solingen on Monday. Together with NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU), he wants to commemorate the victims of the attack.
GBA on Islamist-motivated Islamism Bamf on the Dublin procedure
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
