Maximum sentence for Solingen attacker

The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has imposed the maximum sentence for the Islamist terrorist attack in Solingen. It found 27-year-old Issa al Hasan guilty of triple murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and membership in the Islamic State terrorist group. The judges sentenced the Syrian to life imprisonment, noting the particular gravity of his guilt, and ordered his subsequent preventive detention.

The court thus complied with the request of the Federal Prosecutor's Office and all the attorneys representing the joint plaintiffs. The defense attorneys had merely opposed preventive detention.

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"The defendant has become massively radicalized by Islamist ideology since 2019," said Judge Winfried van der Grinten. He himself spread IS propaganda on his TikTok profile. His online activity demonstrates how he has become increasingly entangled in Islamist ideology.

Three people were killed and eight injured in the knife attack at the Solingen town festival on August 23, 2024. The Syrian, a rejected asylum seeker, had deliberately stabbed festival visitors in the neck from behind. He was arrested a day later. The attack fueled the nationwide debate about refugee and asylum policy. In North Rhine-Westphalia, a security package with dozens of measures was subsequently adopted.

The 27-year-old has been held in the high-security wing of the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court since May. The court reached its verdict after only 18 days of trial instead of the originally scheduled 24.

A psychiatrist had diagnosed the defendant with an IQ of 71, but found no reason for diminished responsibility. An IQ of 69 or lower is considered a mental disability.

Issa al H. had already confessed to the knife attack at the start of his trial. The Solingen attack was the first in Germany since the 2016 attack on the Berlin Christmas market, for which ISIS claimed responsibility.

Before the attack, he had recorded a video confessing his guilt and swearing allegiance to the IS caliph. He introduced himself to the psychiatric examiner with the words: "I am Issa, I killed three people. That gets you 80 years. I'm waiting to die."

He initially described his act as revenge for the massacres of Muslims by "the Crusaders" in Bosnia, Iraq, and other countries. Another time, he claimed that the dead children in the Gaza Strip and Germany's arms deliveries to Israel had driven him to the act. He had originally intended to throw an incendiary device at the Israeli embassy in Berlin, but then he noticed preparations for the town festival in Solingen.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office had described him as a jihadist and Islamist. He had insisted that IS claim responsibility for the attack, which is what happened.

The psychiatrist sees a high risk of recidivism in the man. In addition to his Islamist ideology, he lacks empathy and has a fascination with violence. The court then indicated that preventive detention could still be considered for Issa al H., who, after all, has no previous convictions as a first-time offender.

Simon Rampp, the co-plaintiff's representative, had stated that the defendant had attacked peacefully celebrating visitors to the "Festival of Diversity" in the dark and from behind with a knife. "It couldn't be more insidious." The defendant's version of having suffered from delusions during the attack was a clumsy defense. A committee of inquiry of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament is currently investigating why the deportation of Issa al H. to Bulgaria, the country of initial reception, failed.