A Syrian asylum seeker and ISIS fanatic has been found guilty of murdering three people at a German festival last year and has been sentenced to life in prison.Issa Al Hasan, 27, stabbed three people to death during an attack at a 'Festival of Diversity' on August 23, 2024, marking the 650th anniversary of the city in western Germany. The state court in Duesseldorf convicted him of three counts of murder, 10 of attempted murder and membership in ISIS, German news agency dpa reported. It also found that he carries 'particularly serious' guilt, meaning that he won't be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.Judge Winfried van der Grinten said that the defendant had become 'massively' radicalised since 2019 and had spread ISIS propaganda on his TikTok profile.When the trial opened in late May, the defendant admitted responsibility for the attack in a statement read by his lawyers. He said that he had 'brought severe guilt upon myself' and added: 'I killed innocent people, not infidels.''Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,' he said of the attack in the western city of Solingen.'Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too,' he said in the statement, admitting he had committed a 'grave crime'. A Syrian asylum seeker and ISIS fanatic has been found guilty of murdering three people at a German festival last year and has been sentenced to life in prison Issa Al Hasan, 27, stabbed three people to death during an attack at a 'Festival of Diversity' on August 23, 2024 In a statement read out by his lawyer, Hasan, sitting under police guard behind a protective glass screen, admitted having 'committed a grave crime ''I deserve and expect a life sentence.'Hasan was an asylum seeker from Syria who had been slated for deportation. The Solingen stabbing was one of several deadly attacks in the months leading up to Germany's national election in February that involved immigrant suspects, pushing migration to the forefront of the political agenda in that vote.It highlighted problems with returning rejected asylum-seekers to the first country where they entered the European Union, as is supposed to happen under EU rules.The suspect was supposed to be deported to Bulgaria in 2023, but reportedly disappeared for a time and avoided expulsion.Prosecutors say he set out to harm 'nonbelievers' at the festival, where he saw his targets 'as representatives of Western society' and sought 'to take revenge against them for the military actions of Western states'.An ISIS member whom Hasan had contacted that month allegedly encouraged him to go ahead with the plan and promised him that the group would claim it and use it for propaganda purposes. Issa Al Hasan bends over as he sits at his place in the courtroom at court building in Duesseldorf, western Germany, on May 27 2025 An ambulance and police stand on August 24, 2024 near the scene where three people were killed and 10 were injuredThe group later said via its Amaq outlet on the messaging app Telegram that an ISIS 'soldier' had carried out the attack in 'revenge' for Muslims 'in Palestine and everywhere'.Prosecutors say Hasan had filmed videos in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS and forwarded them on to his ISIS contact just before he committed the attack.The stabbing spree was one in a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that triggered a national debate about border control in Germany.In May 2024, a man with a knife attacked people at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim, fatally wounding a police officer who intervened.The Afghan suspect went on trial in February and is also alleged to be sympathetic to the ISIS group.In December, a Saudi man was arrested after a car ploughed through a Christmas market crowd in the eastern city of Magdeburg, killing six people and wounding hundreds.And in January, a man with a kitchen knife attacked a group of kindergarten children in Aschaffenburg, killing a two-year-old boy and a man who tried to protect the toddlers.A 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested at the scene of the attack, which came during campaigning for the February 23 elections. Hasan was seen getting dragged to his arraignment at the Federal Supreme Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe, Germany, by federal police officers, who took him to the southwestern courthouse via helicopter on August 25, 2024 Forensic police inspect on early August 24, 2024 the area where three people were killed and 10 injured when Hasan attacked them with a knife on late August 23, 2024 in SolingenJust 10 days before the vote, an Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of driving a car through a street rally in Munich, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens.The centre-right CDU/CSU, which demanded tough curbs on immigration in the wake of the attacks, came first in the election with 28.5 percent of the vote.The biggest gains however were made by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which saw its share of the vote more than double to over 20 percent.