Solingen stabbing attack: suspect believed to be member of Islamic State, say authorities

From the Guardian and Bild. 

A suspect arrested over a stabbing rampage in the western German city of Solingen is thought to be a member of Islamic State, federal prosecutors have said, after Friday’s attack in which three people died and eight were injured.

Düsseldorf police and prosecutors said in a joint statement early on Sunday that the suspect in custody was a 26-year-old Syrian man who had turned himself in.

A spokesperson for German federal prosecutors, who have taken over the investigation of the case, also said the man was suspected of being a member of Islamic State. The extremist group on Saturday claimed responsibility for the attack without providing any evidence.

“The involvement of this person is currently under intensive investigation,” the joint statement said.

North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister, Herbert Reul, told the ARD broadcaster late on Saturday that authorities spent the day following a “hot lead” that led to the arrest. Police had earlier made two arrests that were unlikely to be the perpetrator, Reul said. “The real suspect is the one that we’ve arrested just now,” he said. The individual was being questioned and evidence was seized, he said.

Police found at least one weapon that may have been used in the alleged assault and are analysing it for DNA traces. They said they had had no indication in the run-up to the festival that there was a security threat.

According to SPIEGEL information, 26-year-old Issa al H. was born in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor. He came to Germany at the end of December 2022 and applied for asylum in Bielefeld. A year later, he received so-called subsidiary protection, which refugees from the civil war country often receive. He is a Sunni Muslim. According to SPIEGEL information, he was not previously known to the security authorities as an Islamist extremist.

However:  There is information in Bild about him being on the run to avoid a deportation order. One wonders what that might have been about?