Issa al-Hasan, 27, who contacted Islamic State handler before attack, acted out of ‘treacherous and base motives’
A Syrian man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for a 2024 stabbing attack in western Germany in which three people were killed and 10 others injured.
Issa al-Hasan, 27, who arrived in Germany as a refugee after travelling through Turkey and the Balkans in 2022 and had been a member of the Islamic State militant group, had acted out of “treacherous and base motives”, the court in Düsseldorf said.
The stabbings, which took place during a festival to mark the 650th anniversary of Solingen, significantly influenced Germany’s election campaign, enhancing support for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland and encouraging the then opposition leader, now chancellor, Friedrich Merz, to focus his campaign on a defiant pledge to intensify migration controls.
Al-Hasan, who had applied for asylum on the basis that he wanted to avoid military conscription in Syria, had carried out his attack on the festival knowing that he would find “unbelievers” in the crowds, prosecutors said, adding he had wanted to contribute to a “holy war”.
