Berlin Holocaust Memorial: Federal Prosecutor's Office takes over investigation after knife attack

After the bloody attack on a Spanish tourist at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin , the Federal Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation. The Karlsruhe authority announced this, referring to the special importance of the case.

The alleged perpetrator acted out of radical Islamist and anti-Semitic convictions that are directed against the free form of society in Germany . The act is therefore capable of compromising the internal security of the Federal Republic. The suspect is suspected of wanting to kill a person in a malicious and base manner. In this context, he is also accused of dangerous bodily harm.

On Friday, a Spanish tourist was critically injured in a knife attack at the Holocaust Memorial. He had to undergo emergency surgery. A 19-year-old Syrian refugee is now in custody as a suspect. He was arrested a few hours after the attack with blood-stained hands in the vicinity of the memorial. The suspect lived in shared accommodation in Leipzig as a recognized refugee.

He is said to have stabbed the man from Spain from behind in the field of steles of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with the presumed aim of killing Jews. The Berlin public prosecutor's office speaks of an anti-Semitic motive in view of the crime scene. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office also assumes that he is a supporter of the so-called "Islamic State". In addition to the knife, which is the suspected murder weapon, the man is said to have had a Koran, a piece of paper with verses from it and a prayer rug in his backpack. He is said to have stated that the plan to "kill Jews" had been maturing in his mind for several weeks.