The alleged perpetrator of the anti-Semitic attack which targeted a synagogue and killed two people in October in Germany will be tried from July 21, notably for murders and attempted murders, announced the competent court on Monday.
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Stephan Balliet, a 27-year-old right-wing extremist at the time of the crime, is accused of " committing an attack on October 9, 2019 against citizens of the Jewish faith with anti-Semitic, racist and xenophobic motivation ", according to the press release. the Naumburg Regional High Court.
He will also be tried in Magdeburg for " attempted murder at the expense of 68 people in total " and incitement to racial hatred during this trial scheduled to last until mid-October and in which 40 people went civil party. The attack in Halle, in the east of the country, on the day of Yom Kippur, the biggest Jewish religious holiday, had deeply shocked Germany.
Souvenir of Nazism
He had awakened the memory of Nazism in a country whose Jewish community has certainly been booming since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but which is experiencing a resurgence of anti-Semitic acts. The accused tried to forcibly enter a synagogue where 52 worshipers were praying " with explosive charges and firearms, " the statement said. After failing to force open the door, he shot a passerby and a man in a snack bar frequented in particular by immigrants. " Despite despite the failure of his attempt " to enter the synagogue, the accused " had decided to kill people of foreign origin in other places ", according to justice.
At the time of the events, justice had assured that he wanted to “ commit a massacre ” within the Jewish community. The synagogue assault filmed by Stephan Balliet had been broadcast live for 35 minutes on an internet platform. The toll could have been much heavier if the double-locked door of the synagogue had not withstood the assailant's gunshots.
He had been arrested while trying to flee in his vehicle, " shooting a police officer chasing him (...), wounding a pedestrian then shooting two other people before taking another vehicle. under the threat of a weapon . " Placed in pre-trial detention, he recently tried to escape from prison. Berlin has since undertaken to introduce a law making it possible to increase the penalties when an offense or a crime involves an anti-Semitic motive. Chancellor Angela Merkel promised " zero tolerance " and said she was determined to " fight hate better" after the attack on the synagogue.
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