In the trial of the fatal knife attack on a gay couple in Dresden, the 21-year-old defendant has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The court was convinced that the Syrian was guilty of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm, said Hans Schlüter-Staats, presiding judge at the Dresden Higher Regional Court, on Friday. The state protection senate also sees a special gravity of guilt.
In addition, preventive detention would be ordered for the Islamist dangerous person known to the police under reserve – that is, it must be examined in due course. With the verdict, the senate at the Dresden Higher Regional Court met the demands of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office. The defence had pleaded for the more lenient juvenile criminal law.
The Syrian had stabbed a gay couple in Dresden’s city centre on October 4, 2020, whom he believed to be homosexuals. A 55-year-old man died shortly afterwards in hospital, his 53-year-old companion survived seriously injured.
According to the verdict, the accused acted out of radical Islamist and homophobic sentiments. In prison, he had described the course of events to a psychiatrist. The trial had started on April 12.