BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have taken into custody a Syrian man suspected of helping plan a violent attack at Berlin’s Holocaust Memorial that left a Spanish visitor seriously injured earlier this year.
Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that the suspect, identified only as Khalaf A. according to German privacy laws, faces charges of being an accessory to attempted murder and causing bodily harm.
According to investigators, the man spent the day before the February 21, 2025 incident with Wassim Al M., the convicted attacker, and provided encouragement for the planned assault.
Wassim Al M., who is also Syrian, received a 13-year prison sentence in March after being found guilty on multiple charges, including attempted murder and seeking to join a foreign terrorist organization.
Court proceedings revealed that the attacker had traveled from Leipzig to Berlin specifically to conduct an assault on behalf of the Islamic State group.
During sentencing, presiding judge Doris Husch explained that the perpetrator selected the Holocaust Memorial as his target because “he believed he would find people of Jewish faith there.” The attack involved stabbing the Spanish visitor in the throat, followed by the attacker shouting “Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is great.”
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe consists of 2,700 gray concrete blocks situated near the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin, serving as a tribute to the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
The violent incident occurred just two days prior to Germany’s national election, during which immigration policy emerged as a major campaign topic following several fatal attacks involving immigrants in the preceding months.
