“Issa al H” acknowledged he committed a “grave crime” by attempting a mass casualty attack in which three people were killed, said his lawyers as they read out his statement to a Düsseldorf courtroom on Tuesday, May 27th.
The jihadist detainee is also accused of Islamic State membership—having pledged allegiance to IS in videos made just prior to the attack—and 10 counts of attempted murder and further charges of grievous bodily harm.
The stabbings came during Solingen’s three-day festival (‘of diversity’) to mark the city’s 650th anniversary. Anger followed the revelation that the perpetrator arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2022, but disappeared the following year, by the time German authorities were preparing to deport him to Bulgaria, where he first registered for asylum.
The violence in Solingen formed part of a migrant-led wave of violent crime across the European Union which, in turn, has helped to persuade voters to support tougher restrictions on mass migration.
