German court sentences Syrian to life imprisonment for 2025 knife attack
A German court on Monday sentenced Syrian national Mahmoud B., 36, to life imprisonment for a quadruple attempted murder in 2025 motivated by Islamist convictions, the Düsseldorf prosecutor's office said. The man was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder as a member of a foreign terrorist organization. In May 2025, he stabbed customers at a bar in Bielefeld who were celebrating their football club's promotion, wounding four people before being arrested.
A German court on Monday sentenced Syrian national Mahmoud B., 36, to life imprisonment for a quadruple attempted murder in 2025 motivated by Islamist convictions, the Düsseldorf prosecutor's office said.
The man was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder as a member of a foreign terrorist organization, according to a statement from the city of Düsseldorf court.
In May 2025, Mahmoud B., then 35, stabbed customers at a bar in Bielefeld who were celebrating their football club's promotion. He wounded four people before fleeing and being arrested during a police raid.
Prosecutors said he joined Islamic State in Syria before May 2015 and served as a fighter and administrator for the group until November 2016. He entered Germany in 2023, still affiliated with the organization, and intended to kill as many people as possible in the attack.
Germany has experienced several deadly jihadist attacks in recent years, including knife and vehicle-ramming incidents. In late 2025, an Afghan man was sentenced to life imprisonment for a knife attack in Mannheim that targeted an anti-Islam rally and killed a police officer a year earlier. The deadliest attack occurred in December 2016, when a Tunisian with jihadist motives drove a truck into a crowd at Berlin's Christmas market, killing 13 people.