New Arrest Warrant Obtained in Connection with the Suspected Terrorist Attack Outside a Bar in Bielefeld

Year of issue 2025
Date 25.06.2025

Today (25 June 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained a new arrest warrant against the

Syrian national Mahmoud M.

from the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice.

Mahmoud M. is strongly suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation, attempted murder (section 211 para. 2, sections 22, 23 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]), and dangerous bodily harm (section 223 para. 1, section 224 para. 1 StGB).

In essence, the arrest warrant against him sets out the following allegations:

Mahmoud M. adheres to an Islamist-Jihadist ideology. He joined the terrorist organisation “Islamic State” in Syria no later than December 2014. He worked as a (border) guard for the organisation in the area around Raqqa until the spring of 2016. After his entry into the Federal Republic of Germany, the suspect decided to kill as many randomly selected people in Germany as possible for the “Islamic State”, namely as part of a global “Holy War”. To this end, he deliberately stabbed guests with knives outside a bar in Bielefeld in the early morning of 18 May 2025, inflicting life-threatening injuries on four people.

The arrest warrant substitutes the arrest warrant issued by the Bielefeld County Court on 20 May 2025 and obtained by the Bielefeld Public Prosecutor’s Office. Mahmoud M. had been taken into custody on 19 May 2025 and has since been held in pre-trial detention. On 20 May 2025, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigation (see Press Release No. 28 of 20 May 2025).

Today, the suspect was brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice who issued the arrest warrant and ordered that pre-trial detention remain in effect.