German prosecutors on Tuesday indicted a 19-year-old Syrian national for allegedly stabbing a man earlier this year at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, in what authorities say was part of his attempt to join the Islamic State terror group.
The defendant, identified by WELT as Wassim Al-M., has been charged with attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, and attempted membership in a terrorist organization over the February stabbing of a Spanish tourist. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, with the possibility of life imprisonment.
Prosecutors said the defendant, who arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker from Syria, was motivated by “radical Islamist and antisemitic convictions, directed against the free democratic order in Germany.”
Federal authorities assumed control of the case due to its significance, according to WELT.
The Feb. 21 assault occurred at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe near Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.
Police arrested Al-M. nearby within hours of the attack. At the time, he reportedly had blood on his hands and was carrying a prayer rug, a Koran, a knife believed to have been used in the assault, and a note containing Koranic verses, investigators said, according to WELT.
The defendant entered Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor seeking asylum, according to police and the federal prosecutor’s office.
