Syrian man charged with attempted murder in Berlin Holocaust Memorial stabbing

Berlin (AP) – The main prosecutor of Germany filed charges against a Syrian as part of a stab attack at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial in February which seriously injured a Spanish tourist.

The suspect sought to use alleged crime to join the militant Islamic State group, said the federal prosecutor. The accusations were filed on July 18 and announced on Tuesday.

The man, who was only identified as Wassim Al M. in accordance with the German confidentiality rules, would have sent a photo of him to the members of the group before the stab wounds to give activists the possibility of claiming the responsibility of the crime, the authorities said.

He would have tried to kill Jews during the attack, officials said. He is accused of attempted murder, dangerous bodily injury and attempted membership in a terrorist organization abroad.

The 19 -year -old man was arrested almost three hours after the attack on February 21 when he approached officers with blood on his hands and clothes. He has remained in detention since then.

The attack took place two days before a German national election which saw the migration become a critical question, pushed to the foreground by five deadly attacks involving immigrants in the nine months preceding the vote.

The violence occurred at the Memorial of the Jews murdered in Europe, a field of 2,700 gray concrete slabs near the Porte de Brandebourg in the heart of Berlin, which honors the 6 million Jews killed in the holocaust under the direction of Nazi Germany.

The suspect arrived in Germany in 2023 as an unaccompanied minor and successfully applied for asylum, the investigators said. He lived in Leipzig.