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Islamist trial in Dresden: "His homophobia made him choose these two people."

2021-04-12T18:43:47.215Z


The first Islamist murder attempt on homosexuals in Germany has been tried before the Dresden Higher Regional Court. The defendant has already revealed himself to a psychiatrist.


Enlarge image

Defendant Abdullah al HH at the start of the trial in Dresden: "It was actually his intention to die as a martyr"

Photo: Matthias Rietschel / POOL / EPA

The handcuffs and ankle cuffs are not removed from Abdullah al HH.

After the first day of negotiations before the State Security Senate of the Dresden Higher Regional Court, there is hardly any doubt that the 21-year-old is still dangerous.

Not about the fact that it was he who killed a man on October 4, 2020 and seriously injured his partner.

It is the first Islamist attack on homosexuals in Germany.

Thomas L. and his partner Oliver L. had come to Dresden as tourists from North Rhine-Westphalia.

On the evening of October 4, 2020, they walk through the city center.

They want to go back to the hotel around 9:30 p.m. when the attack happens.

According to the indictment, Abdullah al HH stabs two kitchen knives from behind, insidiously and for low motives.

He rams the knife in the back of Thomas L.

The 21 centimeter long blade penetrates his body almost completely.

The blade breaks off and gets stuck in his body.

Al HH stabs Oliver L. with the second knife.

The men collapse, scream for help, try to fight back.

Abdullah al HH flees.

Oliver L., 53, is seriously injured.

His partner, Thomas L., 55, did not survive the crime.

The defendant began to radicalize himself in Dresden

Abdullah al HH listens carefully as the federal prosecutor reads out the indictment on Monday.

An interpreter translates the words into Arabic for him.

Abdullah al HH has to stand trial for murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.

Since he was 20 years old at the time of the crime and is therefore legally considered to be an adolescent, the court must examine whether he will be convicted under juvenile or adult criminal law.

The accused selected the two victims to attack them "as representatives of a liberal and open social order that he rejected as unbelieving" and to punish them with death for their homosexuality, "which he perceived as a grave sin", according to the Accusation.

After the crime, there was initially silence on the part of the investigative authorities about the sexual identity of the victims and thus about the motive for the crime.

"The sexual orientation of crime victims" was not given, said a Dresden chief public prosecutor two and a half weeks after the crime.

Is that really the case?

Wouldn't every heterosexual couple who fell victim to such an attack be named as a married couple as a matter of course?

As if it had nothing to do with the fact that Oliver L. and Thomas L. loved each other.

He appeared "self-critical in an extremely irritating way"

Abdullah al HH does not want to comment in court.

But he did it extensively to the forensic psychiatrist, Professor Norbert Leygraf, while in custody.

They talked for two days, a total of six and a half hours.

In court, Leygraf echoes the defendant's words.

"Mr. al HH seemed very serious, very thoughtful and self-critical in a decidedly irritating way." Not self-critical in the sense that he regrets what he has done.

Self-critical in the sense that he didn't do the job the way he wanted it to.

Homosexuals are enemies of God who have to be fought, beaten and killed.

That's what he told the psychiatrist.

The presiding judge, Hans Schlueter-Staats, put it later that day: "His homophobia made him choose these two people."

Abdullah al HH was born in Aleppo, Syria.

In 2015 he made his way through Turkey, Greece and the Balkan route to Munich.

In 2017 he came to Dresden.

There he began to radicalize.

He had watched numerous radical Islamist videos and made contact with supporters of the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS), he told psychiatrist Leygraf.

Al HH was arrested in August 2017 and sentenced in 2018 for promoting ISIS among other things.

Since he attacked police sergeants while in custody, he received another sentence.

Only on September 29, 2020, al HH was released from prison after more than three years.

The authorities continued to regard him as a radical Islamist.

He was monitored, but not around the clock.

While still in prison, he asked fellow prisoners how he could get weapons.

"After his release from prison, he wanted to kill 'infidels' with these weapons," says Leygraf, reproducing the defendant's words.

His decision to kill was made.

"He just didn't know how and when."

Bought two sets of knives

According to the investigators, he bought several kitchen knives on October 2, 2020.

He had bought two sets of knives in order to kill as many "infidels" as possible, he told Leygraf.

On October 4, he left home with two knives in the late afternoon.

He first went to a mosque to pray and then took the tram to Dresden city center.

There he looked for victims.

At some point he discovered Oliver L. and Thomas L. They were holding hands, laughing together.

Abdullah al HH recorded it exactly.

He followed and watched her.

"He selected them as a target because they were homosexual," the psychiatrist repeats his words.

The defendant rammed the knife into the back of Thomas L.

Then he injured Oliver L. and fled.

"It was actually his intention to die a martyr," said the defendant to the psychiatrist.

He interpreted it as a sign from God that he was able to escape.

“Now he can prepare for bigger things.

Either travel to IS in Syria or kill more 'infidels' here. ”A good two weeks later, on October 20, he was arrested.

The act was not a mistake.

"He didn't do anything wrong but didn't do it wisely," he told Leygraf.

He should have informed the IS before the act and swore the oath of allegiance.

When he was released again, he would first seek advice from IS and then kill him again.

"When I get out of custody, I will kill people here in this country." Leygraf: "He never left a single doubt about this clear objective." Abdullah al HH seemed very calm - "as if he were the most normal World would talk «.

A police officer who was at the scene a few minutes after the crime bursts into tears in court.

He saw Thomas L. lying dying on the floor.

He himself took care of the seriously injured Oliver L. That Oliver L. survived, "that was just luck," says a forensic doctor later.

Oliver L. told the medic that he and his partner were attacked "suddenly from behind".

"It was completely unclear to him why they were attacked." The doctor also says: "He did a lot of research into the condition of his partner, which I wanted to withhold from him at the time, to be honest." Because Oliver L's partner was no longer alive .

Thomas L. died in hospital an hour after the attack.

He's bled to death.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-04-12

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