The project failed because the Turkish embassy refused to issue him a visa.
Berlin. The alleged knife attacker from Dresden is said to have tried in vain to travel to a sister in Turkey at the end of 2017. According to internal documents, the German authorities wanted to help the young man from Syria, who had recently been classified as an Islamist threat and was in custody at the time, with his departure. The police refer to people as threats if they trust them to commit serious, politically motivated crimes, such as a terrorist attack.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the project failed because the Turkish embassy refused to issue him a visa due to a lack of evidence. As the dpa found out, the plan was to provide the Turkish authorities with information about the IS supporter, but only after he left Germany.
At the time, the young Islamist and his plans to leave the country were discussed several times in the so-called AG Status of the joint federal and state counter-terrorism center. He was targeted by the security authorities because he had advertised the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia and was looking for instructions on how to build explosive belts. In November 2018, the Dresden Higher Regional Court sentenced him to a youth penalty of two years and nine months for, among other things, soliciting members or supporters of a terrorist organization abroad, obtaining instructions for committing a serious act of violence, bodily harm and threats.
The young man, whose year of birth is listed in the files as 1998 or 2000, had applied for asylum in Chemnitz in February 2016. In September 2017 – after his arrest – he said, according to the files, that he wanted to leave Germany again. In April 2018, however, he reportedly stated that he did not want to return to Syria as he would be drafted into the military there.
On October 4, two men were victims of a knife attack in Dresden. A 55-year-old from Krefeld died, another man (53) from Cologne survived seriously injured. The young Syrian is under suspicion. The investigators suspect an Islamist motive. The Attorney General has taken over the investigation. (dpa)
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