Court in Germany convicts a man inspired by the Islamic State group of committing 2 knife attacks

BERLIN (AP) — A Syrian man described as radicalized was convicted of murder, attempted murder and bodily harm on Tuesday over two knife attacks in Germany this year, including an assault on visitors to a gym.

The 27-year-old defendant, identified only as Maan D. in line with German privacy rules, was sentenced to life in prison. The Duesseldorf state court determined that he bears particularly severe guilt, meaning that he won’t be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany.

He was convicted of stabbing a 35-year-old man to death with a kitchen knife in the western city of Duisburg in April, and attacking four people at a gym in the city with the same knife nine days later. The victims in that stabbing survived, though some sustained life-threatening injuries.

The court found that the man, who was arrested a few days after the gym attack and has been in custody since then, “is still determined to kill people who are ‘infidels’ from his point of view” and that he is a danger to the public.

The defendant arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2015 and, starting in 2020, became radicalized online by the ideology of the Islamic State group, the court said. It added that, “without a direct link to IS or other terror organizations,” he was determined to kill arbitrarily chosen male residents of Germany.

The man showed no reaction as the verdict was announced on Tuesday, German news agency dpa reported.

“The defendant has set out his terrorist attitude with an openness that the court is unused to,” presiding judge Jan van Lessen said. “He thinks he has seen the true religion in the militant ideology of jihadism.”