Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office Seizes Jurisdiction over the Attempted Murder at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

Year of issue 2025
Date 24.02.2025

Today (24 February 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation proceedings against

Syrian national Wassim Al M.

from the Berlin Public Prosecutor General’s Office due to the special significance of the case.

Wassim Al M. is strongly suspected of attempted murder out of base and perfidious motives (section 211 para. 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]) as a young adult (Section 105 German Juvenile Courts Act [JGG]). In this context, he also allegedly committed dangerous bodily harm (section 223 para. 1, section 224 para. 1 nos. 2 and 5 StGB).

Wassim Al M. is essentially alleged of the following:

The suspect shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’. In the early evening of 21 February 2025, he assaulted an individual at the Field of Stelae of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with a knife from behind, inflicting life-threatening injuries. His actions were guided by his radical-Islamist and anti-Semitic beliefs, which are directed against the liberal society in Germany. This act does therefore have the potential to undermine the domestic security of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Berlin State Criminal Police Office continues to head the police investigation.