It is suspected that the Syrian youth carried out a knife attack on April 18 in a hall in Duisburg (west), during which four men were injured, one of them seriously. He is also suspected of stabbing a man to death on Easter Sunday in Duisburg, less than a kilometer from the sports hall.
The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday that a 26-year-old Syrian is suspected of carrying out two “Islamist” knife attacks in Duisburg, one of which left one dead.
The Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, which is in charge of the most complex cases in Germany, including terrorism, stated that it will undertake this double investigation targeting the Syrian who was arrested at the end of last week.
Initially, investigators did not identify any clear motive for these two cases, which date back more than ten days.
A spokeswoman for the federal prosecution told Der Spiegel that the elements collected so far, especially the results of the raid on the suspect’s house, revealed “indications of an Islamic motive” behind the two attacks.
The Dusseldorf public prosecutor’s office, which initially assigned the investigations, cited an “Islamic” motive on Tuesday.
The Syrian is suspected of carrying out a knife attack on April 18 in a hall in Duisburg (west), during which four men were injured, one of them seriously. He is also suspected of stabbing a man to death on Easter Sunday in Duisburg, less than a kilometer from the sports hall. According to Der Spiegel, he tried to cut off the victim’s head.
DNA analyzes of this person and of one of the injured gymnasts were found on the suspect’s shoe. The suspect, about whom no details have been disclosed, may have remained silent so far.
The country witnessed several jihadist attacks, the most violent of which was a truck attack carried out in December 2016 at a Christmas market in Berlin, which left 12 dead. Recently, the authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of another Syrian with “extremist Islamic and jihadist” tendencies, on suspicion of planning with his brother to carry out an explosive attack.
