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Crime scene in Dresden (archive): Abdullah al HH was monitored - this could not prevent his fatal attack
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xcitepress / imago images
Defense attorney Peter Hollstein fights for his client, even if Abdullah al HH doesn't want that at all.
Because the young Syrian also regards his lawyer as an "unbeliever", as a representative of a free society that he despises.
Abdullah al HH demonstrated, day after day, that he rejects the German rule of law. On this Wednesday, too, he remains seated as a judge enters the high-security room of the Dresden Higher Regional Court. The defendant only respects his god, a cruel god he has put together from Islamist hate sermons and inhuman videos on the Internet. And for which he killed on October 4, 2020.
The then 20-year-old was out and about in Dresden that evening in October with two knives.
He doesn't know who he wants to kill.
Only that he wants to kill as many "unbelievers" as possible.
He notices Oliver L. and Thomas L. their laughter, their familiarity strikes him.
He stabs from behind.
Thomas L. dies, his partner survives seriously injured.
For Abdullah al HH, homosexuals are "enemies of God".
"He wanted to go to paradise"
The defendant struggles with his own sexuality. He never had an intimate relationship. That he masturbates makes him a sinner himself in his eyes. "He wanted to go to paradise," says his lawyer. "As absurd as that may sound." With the attack, he wanted to prove to his God that he was worthy of Paradise. He was said to have become a murderer "out of fear of hellfire." This is what his defense attorney says in his plea on that day, as the defendant had also told the psychiatric expert Norbert Leygraf.
Abdullah al HH hardly spoke a word to his lawyer; he spoke to psychiatrist Leygraf for several hours.
Defense attorney Hollstein says his client must have understood what it means to tell the court appraiser that he believes it is legitimate to kill "unbelievers".
When he tells him he regrets not killing more people.
For Hollstein, this openness expresses the youthful immaturity of his client, "who does not yet have an overview of all his thoughts and actions".
He does not consider it to be a coincidence that Abdullah al HH of all people has relentlessly opened up to Leygraf.
He may have taken the court expert - an older man in his late 60s - more seriously than all the women who had tried to have a positive effect on him before the crime.
Abdullah al HH has been in prison for three years.
He had tried to recruit members for the terrorist militia "Islamic State" and obtained instructions for a suicide attack.
His sentence was extended for attacking law enforcement officers.
He was released at the end of September 2020.
Five days later he became a murderer.
Conviction according to juvenile justice?
In retrospect, it was a murder with an announcement.
The State Criminal Police Office of Saxony and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution knew about the danger that Abdullah al HH posed.
Even while in custody, he made no secret of his murderous intentions.
After his release, he was monitored, cared for, he was supervised and had to report to the police three times a week.
All that defense attorney Hollstein can still achieve for his client would be a conviction according to juvenile criminal law.
Since Abdullah al HH was 20 years old at the time of the crime, he is considered an adolescent who can be punished as a teenager or as an adult, depending on his level of maturity.
"Can we really say: 'Yes, we are dealing with a grown-up'?" Asks the defense attorney and adds: "I really have my doubts." He asks the court to rule on juvenile justice.
The psychiatrist, the federal prosecutor and the accessory prosecutors do not see the fact that Abdullah al HH freely communicated his Islamist views as immaturity, but as a sign of deeply anchored extremist convictions.
The federal prosecutor's office and the accessory prosecution are demanding life imprisonment and the determination of the particular gravity of the guilt.
You also want the security detention order to be checked at a later point in time.
more on the subject
Islamist trial in Dresden: "His homophobia made him choose these two people" Von Wiebke Ramm, Dresden
Islamist trial in Dresden: "We looked at each other and called for help" By Wiebke Ramm, Dresden
It is currently "under no circumstances imaginable" that Abdullah al HH will ever be released again, says lawyer Christoph Klein in his plea.
He represents the murdered man's sister.
"The defendant attacked us all"
Maximilian Klefenz is the lawyer for Oliver L., the survivor of the attack.
"October 4th changed Mr. L.'s life forever." He was suffering heavily from the loss of his partner.
In his plea, Klefenz also addresses the criticism of the authorities' silence on the motive of the accused.
For a long time there was only talk of an attack on two tourists, not a gay couple.
Attorney Klefenz now says that Oliver L. never spoke publicly because he was concerned that people might fail to recognize that the attack was aimed at society as a whole.
"The defendant attacked us all," says the lawyer. "It could have happened to anyone."