A Syrian man, identified as Wassim Al M., has been formally charged with attempted murder, dangerous bodily harm, and attempted membership in a foreign terrorist organisation over a stabbing attack that severely injured a Spanish tourist at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial in February.
The victim, a 30-year-old man from the Basque Country of northern Spain, sustained life-threatening neck injuries.
Prosecutors allege Wassim carried out the stabbing at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with the explicit aim of killing Jews, motivated by extremist Islamist and antisemitic views.
The suspect “shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organisation Islamic State,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Investigators say he sent a photograph of himself to Islamic State members prior to the attack so the group could claim responsibility.
Wassim arrived in Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor and was granted asylum. He was living in Leipzig and was arrested three hours after the stabbing, with bloodied hands and clothing, and remains in pre-trial detention.
This case has further intensified the national debate over migration and public safety. Migrants from Afghanistan and Syria have been responsible for a series of knife attacks in Germany in recent years.So far this year, there have been more than 2,200 knife-related crimes in Germany.
