Germany: up to life in prison for the author of an islamist attack with a knife

AFP
Ahmad Alhaw.

AFP

Thursday, 1 march 2018 04:16

UPDATE
Thursday, 1 march 2018 04:16

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The German court sentenced Thursday an asylum seeker palestinian to life in prison for an attack islamist with a knife that had left one dead and six injured in July 2017 in Hamburg.

The city court has withheld in respect of Ahmad Alhaw, 27 years old, who had qualified his act of “contribution to the global jihad”, an aggravating circumstance for “islamism”, the synonyms of a sentence without the prospect of at least 15 years.

At the end of July, Mr. Alhaw was entered in the middle of the day in a supermarket in Hamburg, taking in a radius of a kitchen knife with a blade of 20 cm, and had fatally stabbed a client of 50 years.

He had subsequently absconded and wounded in the street six other people with his knife while shouting “Allah Akbar”, before being mastered at the end of a pursuit by onlookers, including an asylum-seeker afghanistan.

Its radicalization was made according to the charge current 2016, the year in which it has been rejected her application for asylum. Despite this rejection and the signs of drift extremist, for lack of identity papers he could not be expelled. This has earned some criticism against the authorities.

“Global Jihad”

Several islamist attacks were perpetrated in Germany in recent years. The Hamburg is occurring seven months after an attack on the truck-ram on a Christmas market in berlin, the worst attack of this type to have taken place in the Germany (12 dead).

This case has highlighted serious dysfunctions of the police and of the German administration in the follow-up of the islamists. The author of the attack, Anis Amri, had been flagged as potentially dangerous by the authorities, who, however, were not taken. It was also pending deportation to Germany following the rejection of his asylum application.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry on the failures of the authorities should be established in Berlin on Thursday.

Arrived in march 2015 in Germany from Norway after having been in Sweden and Spain, the Palestinian author of the attack of Hamburg lived for nine years in Europe.

During his attack, Alhaw “has sought to reach victims at random, according to him, continue to perpetuate injustices against muslims”, according to the public prosecutor.

“It was important for him to kill the greatest possible number of christian germans. He wanted his action to be understood as a contribution to the global jihad”, he added.

However, the investigation did not revealed any link with the organization islamic State (EI) and accredited the trail of a “lone wolf”. The accused acknowledged, however, have looked at as of 2014, the propaganda videos of the group jihadist.

Fascinated by the West

The man had been initially presented by the authorities as psychologically fragile. But several experts have dismantled this argument during his trial started in mid-January.

For its part, the defense has attempted to find mitigating circumstances, and considered that it would not have passed the act if Germany had facilitated its integration since its arrival in 2015.

“Fascinated by the western life-style” and “dreaming of a better life” in Europe, “it has, however, radicalized in arriving in Germany”, after having denied his asylum request, it found the prosecutor Yasemin Tüz.

During the trial, the magistrate has read a passage from the writings of the accused sent to the German government: “The flames of war will reach you sooner or later”.

The accused was presented on the last day of hearing his apologies to the victims and their loved ones. “I can’t go back in time. The only thing I can do is apologize and hope that you forgive me”, he said.

On this occasion, he presented for the first time the beard shaved.