The Islamist terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market in 2016 was only possible due to a multitude of errors by the security authorities. This is the conclusion of the committee of investigation of the Berlin House of Representatives, which handed over its final report on Monday.
The committee chairman Stephan Lenz (CDU) said that “no single person was blamed” and “no individual errors” were uncovered that directly resulted in the attack. However, the committee had found numerous failures, especially on the part of the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “And it is the sum of these errors and omissions that made the attack possible.”
The decisive factor was the misjudgement of the rejected asylum seeker Anis Amri from Tunisia in summer 2016. He was known to be a violent and possibly highly dangerous Islamist. In the summer, however, Amri was no longer monitored and wiretapped because the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) no longer considered his case to be so dangerous for various reasons.
The report contains 1235 pages. In 4 years and 64 sessions, the committee of enquiry questioned 97 witnesses, including numerous criminal police officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (LKA), officers of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz), public prosecutors and politicians. An investigative committee of the German Parliament had also analysed the role of the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA), among other things, and had also found striking misjudgements of the assassin there. Amri had committed the terrorist attack with a truck on December 19, 2016, killing twelve people.