The Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf has sentenced the Solingen knife attacker to life imprisonment for three counts of murder, ten counts of attempted murder, and membership in the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS). The court also determined the particular severity of guilt and ordered subsequent preventive detention for the 27-year-old Syrian asylum seeker, thereby following the request of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
Issa Al Hasan had entered Germany illegally via Bulgaria in 2023. On August 23 of that year, he killed three people and seriously injured eight others during a city festival in Solingen.
According to the presiding judge, Al Hasan had become increasingly radicalized since 2019. His online activities revealed his growing entrenchment in IS ideology. Contrary to his own claims, he had not acted under IS orders but out of personal conviction. Even before fleeing Syria, he had already pledged loyalty to the group. His long-standing jihadist beliefs and the danger of further serious crimes, the court found, justified preventive detention. There were no signs that he would use imprisonment to distance himself from his extremist views.
The court also rejected Al Hasan’s assertion that the attack was merely a response to the suffering of Muslims in Gaza, calling it at most a secondary motive. His true aim, it said, was “to strengthen IS’s operational capacity in Europe” by killing as many people as possible. Shortly before the attack, he had once again sworn allegiance to IS.
The defense counsel opposed only the preventive detention order but otherwise accepted the prosecution’s legal assessment. His client had “crossed the boundaries of what is bearable,” the lawyer said, conceding that it remained unclear what had led him “to worship evil.” He also praised the stance of the co-plaintiffs, noting that “not a spark of hatred” was detectable among them.
With the criminal proceedings concluded, attention is now turning to the political aftermath. A parliamentary inquiry in North Rhine-Westphalia is examining possible failings of the state’s CDU-Green government and systemic shortcomings in deportation procedures. Central to the inquiry is why Al Hasan’s transfer back to Bulgaria—where he first entered the EU—collapsed months before the crime. A first deportation attempt in June 2023 failed; despite knowing he had not gone into hiding, authorities made no second attempt. As a result, responsibility for his asylum procedure shifted from Bulgaria to Germany, and Al Hasan was placed in accommodation in Solingen—close to the later crime scene.
