A court in Dusseldorf, Germany, on Tuesday convicted a 27-year-old Syrian of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm, and sentenced him to life in prison for two knife attacks, one of them fatal.
The court determined that the defendant, described as radicalised, bore particularly severe guilt, which means he will not be eligible for parole after 15 years, as is normally the case in Germany.
The defendant, identified only as Maan D in line with German privacy rules, was convicted of knifing a man to death on 9 April in the western town of Duisburg. He had reportedly tried to behead his victim.
Then, on 18 April, he attacked four men with a knife in a gym about a kilometre away from the scene of the first attack, critically injuring one of the men.
DNA evidence from his victims was found on one of the defendant’s shoes.
Originally, no clear motive had been established by investigators for the two incidents. However, a search of the suspect’s home subsequently indicated “signs of Islamist motivation” for the attacks, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
There have been several jihadist attacks in Germany, with the deadliest – a truck bombing in a Christmas market in Berlin in December 2016 – resulting in 12 fatalities.
