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Crime scene on Schloßstraße in Dresden (archive photo)
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xcitepress / imago images
He was a kind young man.
This is what all the witnesses say about Abdullah al HH
Friendly, rather quiet, a little thoughtful.
This is how the psychologist at the Regis-Breitingen juvenile detention center in Saxony experienced the now 21-year-old Syrian.
She has known the young man for a long time.
From February 2019 to September 2020, she met him almost weekly for one-on-one meetings.
He preferred to talk about religion, "he wanted to talk about it".
Abdullah al HH prayed a lot in prison.
"His goal was to live according to the strict interpretation of the Koran," said the psychologist on Thursday before the Dresden Higher Regional Court, where H. had to answer for murder and attempted murder before the State Security Senate.
He turned to the so-called Islamic State (IS), a radical Islamist terrorist organization.
Through the "martyr's death" he promised himself the direct route to paradise
With "good deeds" he wanted to make up for his sins from before and to stand before God.
This is how Abdullah al HH explained it to the psychologist.
Such a good deed is, for example, a suicide bombing.
With the "martyr's death" he promised himself the direct route to paradise.
In 2017, Abdullah al HH obtained instructions for building an explosives belt from the Internet.
In the same year he was arrested and sentenced in 2018.
Even then, the judges took Abdullah al HH's Islamist terrorist ambitions seriously.
He was imprisoned for more than three years.
At that time he spoke to the psychologist for the first time.
They met once a week.
At the time, Abdullah al HH did not understand why he was in prison.
"I had the feeling he was trivializing the whole thing," the psychologist reports in retrospect.
"He didn't see it as a criminal offense." It was just a mental attack.
In April 2020, he revealed to her that he considered it legitimate to kill "unbelievers".
Six months later, on September 29, 2020, he was released from custody.
Five days later, he killed one man in the street and seriously injured another.
Abdullah al HH does not regret what he did
On the evening of October 4, 2020, Abdullah al HH stabbed a gay couple not far from the Dresden Frauenkirche with two knives.
Thomas L. died, his partner, Oliver L., survived seriously injured.
The men were unbelievers, that's why he wanted to kill them, he said afterwards.
He doesn't regret what he's done.
He only regrets that he did not complete the deed.
He is now on trial for these acts.
The presiding judge, Hans Schlueter-Staats, asks the psychologist what her explanation is for the fact that Abdullah al HH had become more and more radical and finally talked about killing "unbelievers".
"My guess is," she says, "that he realized then that he would be deported and that he had no prospects in Germany."
At the age of 15 he left his homeland Syria
Abdullah al HH is from Syria.
He lived with his parents and eight siblings in poor conditions in a suburb of Aleppo.
He attended school up to the fifth grade, early on he was noticed by fights and theft.
In 2015 his father sent him away.
He should build a life in Germany, earn money for the family and the parents later to catch up.
Abdullah al HH was 15 years old when he left his home country.
In 2015 he came to Germany.
In the meantime it is only tolerated.
But Abdullah al HH cannot be deported to Syria.
"Our constitution forbids sending someone to their death," the judge explains to the defendant.
Also someone who thinks it is legitimate to kill others.
At the beginning he still had plans for the future
Defense attorney Peter Hollstein asks the psychologist whether an attempt has ever been made to "get hold of religion".
To talk to Abdullah al HH about different interpretations of the Koran, to bring him closer to Islam beyond his extremist ideas.
The witness says she had the idea of having an imam talk to him.
It didn't come to that.
"It is very difficult in Saxony to find someone who could do that."
The psychologist says that at the beginning of their talks, Abdullah al HH still had plans for the future.
He wanted to stay in Germany, start a family and find work.
In the course of time he stopped talking about family and work.
It was only about religion.
Mustafa A., 20 years old, had a similar impression.
The Afghan was in the same juvenile detention center with Abdullah al HH.
They met while walking in the yard.
"He was very calm, very friendly," says Mustafa A. But at some point he began to advertise for IS.
He had represented radical Islamist views and said that after his release he would kill "infidels": "I will kill them with a knife or pistol." Mustafa A. avoided him from then on.
"I am a Muslim myself, but I condemn this attitude."
The psychologist came to the conclusion that Abdullah al HH is dangerous, very dangerous.
The State Criminal Police Office and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution also knew that he would pose a threat when he was free again.
But on September 29, 2020, he had served his sentence in full.
Abdullah al HH was released and had to report to the police every few days.
He was monitored, but not at every turn.
The authorities did not notice that he bought two sets of knives shortly after his release.
On October 4th, a Sunday, Abdullah al HH went out and rammed a knife in the back of Oliver L. and Thomas L.
He can escape from the scene of the crime unnoticed.
It will be a good two weeks before the police arrest him.
"He had a very long list of what sin is"
Three days after the attack - Abdullah al HH is still at large - he meets with an employee of the Violence Prevention Network (VPN).
The project tries to dissuade young people from the extremist path.
Abdullah al HH is no stranger to the VPN folks on this day.
The two employees already knew the defendant from custody; they had visited him there ten times.
The employee, a 31-year-old Islamic scholar, said in court on Friday that she experienced Abdullah al HH as very fearful in prison.
He was afraid of going to hell if he "did not lead a godly life" and was not a good Muslim.
"He had a very long list of what sin is." The greatest sins are adultery and homosexuality, he said.
The greatest sin of all is "to kill unjustly".
"When can you legitimately kill?" She asked him.
Abdullah al HH referred to the "Islamic State" where it was legitimate to kill homosexuals.
On October 7, 2020, they met Abdullah al HH for the first time after his release from prison.
The VPN employees have no idea that he has anything to do with the crime in downtown Dresden.
You go for a walk with him, along the Elbe, past the Frauenkirche.
"He spoke a lot more, laughed a lot," the witness recalls.
"He was more open, more relaxed," recalls her colleague in court.
"It was just three days ago that Mr. al HH murdered a man and tried to kill another," judge Schlueter-Staats states and asks: "Was he easy?" Yes, says the witness.
