Brokstedt stabbing

At about 3 p.m. on 25 January 2023, a 33-year-old man of Palestinian origin stabbed nine people on a moving passenger train in Brokstedt, Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein, in Northern Germany.[1] The train was travelling from Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein to Hamburg and was carrying about 70 people.[1] Two of the victims were killed and seven others injured, three of them severely.[1] The deceased victims were identified as a 17-year-old girl and her boyfriend, who was 19.[2][3] The attack allegedly ended when passengers restrained the attacker until the police arrived and arrested him at the train station in Brokstedt. The station was shut down to facilitate the ongoing emergency response efforts.[4][5] The suspect, a man, idetifeid as Ibrahim A., who was also injured, was arrested and taken to hospital.[1]

According to Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, the interior minister of Schleswig-Holstein, the suspect in custody is 33-year-old stateless Ibrahim A. from the Palestinian territories was not known to be on any extremist watch lists, but the attack is under investigation.[4][6] The suspect reportedly came to Germany in 2014, lived first in North Rhine-Westphalia and then in Schleswig-Holstein and was granted subsidiary protection in 2016. He was known to police for sexual and violent offenses and was in police custody until a week before the attack.[7]

Ibrahim A. was registered in the district of Euskirchen and fell under the jurisdiction of the Euskirchen Foreigners Authority (Auslaenderamt).[8] In his asylum application of 22 January 2015, he stated that he was from the Gaza Strip, stateless and persecuted by Hamas. The application was rejected on 12 July 2016; however, A. was granted subsidiary protection. At that time, he had already been sentenced twice to fines for theft (2015) and proceedings were ongoing against him for assault. On 26 July 2016, Ibrahim A. was given a suspended sentence of one year for dangerous bodily harm. From September 2015 to January 2021, there were 24 preliminary and criminal proceedings against Ibrahim A.. Most of the proceedings were discontinued. There were only four final convictions: one suspended sentence for dangerous bodily harm, two fines for theft and one drug offence (2018). The offences or offence charges listed are: Theft, fraud, dangerous bodily harm, drugs, sexual harassment, damage to property, child abuse, rape of persons unfit to resist, driving on the black and trespassing.[9]

On 18 August 2022, the St. Georg Local Court of Hamburg had sentenced Ibrahim A. to one year and one week imprisonment for dangerous bodily harm and theft. A., who had been in Billwerder Prison since 21 January 2022, appealed against the sentence. On 19 January 2023, he had to be released because the sentence had been served and a decision on appeal was not expected in the foreseeable future. Six days later, the knife attack happened in Brokstedt.

While in custody, Ibrahim A. behaved conspicuously. He insulted inmates and court staff and physical altercations took place. A prison officer noticed on 6 August 2022 that Ibrahim A. was "stammering to himself": "Big car, Berlin, that's the truth." To another staff member, he twice expressed whether the latter also wanted to "get under the tyres". In a so-called perception sheet in the prisoner's personnel file, it is recorded that he also compared himself to the attacker at Berlin's Breitscheidplatz, Anis Amri, in August 2022. "There is not only one Anis Amri, there are several, I am also one."[10]

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote on Twitter: "All our thoughts are with the victims of this awful crime and their families."[4]

• Würzburg train attack