Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Syrian held after fatal knife attack
A SYRIAN man has been held on suspicion of murder and membership of a terrorist organisation in connection w ith the Sol i ngen k n i fe attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the German city’s 650th anniversary.
A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered 26-year-old Issa Al H held pending further investigation and a possible indictment after federal prosecutors said he shared the radical ideology of the so-called Islamic State group – and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.
The ruling came after the suspect turned himself in, saying that he was responsible for the attack, police said.
The suspect is also suspected of attempted murder and serious bodily injury, prosecutors said.
His last name was not released in line with German privacy rules.
The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken yesterday from the police station in Solingen for the initial court appearance.
He “shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organisation Islamic State” and on the basis of his
“radical Islamic convictions” decided “to kill the largest possible number of unbelievers” at the festival, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement.
The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press.
The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.
On Saturday, the IS group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence.
IS said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians.