The life sentence for the deadly knife attack on police officer Rouven Laur in Mannheim is now legally binding. No appeals were filed within the one-week deadline, meaning Judge Herbert Anderer’s sentence is final.
Sulaiman Ataee was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court on September 16th, 2025, with the court recognizing in particular the severity of his guilt, which rules out early release. Ataee was convicted of attempted murder in four additional cases and aggravated bodily harm.
Ataee carried out the Islamist-motivated attack on May 31st, 2024, at an anti Islamism rally in Mannheim, stabbing six people—including five rally participants and Officer Laur, who was knifed multiple times in the head. Laur underwent emergency surgery and was placed in an induced coma but succumbed to his injuries two days later. The then-25-year-old attacker was shot and injured by police during the incident.
The perpetrator—an asylum seeker from Afghanistan—had been living illegally in Germany for nine years after his asylum application was rejected in 2014. In 2023, he was granted a temporary residence permit following his fathering of a child, who automatically received German citizenship.
Ataee could potentially be deported to Afghanistan, which would require the relevant immigration authorities to formally order his expulsion, after which the Federal Prosecutor’s Office would have to waive any further imprisonment in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The case shocked Germany, prompting thousands of officers and citizens to attend Laur’s memorial in Mannheim. Judge Anderer said in his closing statement that Ataee believed every Muslim had a duty to kill non-believers, emphasizing the ideological motives behind the attack, one of the most shocking incidents in a recent wave of violence in Europe linked to mass migration.
