German police have arrested Issa al-H., a 26-year-old man of Syrian origin, who confessed to attacking people at a festival in the city of Solingen, killing three and wounding five.
Syreets turned himself in to police. The man reportedly approached a police patrol car and told officers:
I am the one you are looking for.
The Syrian’s asylum application had previously been rejected, WELT learned from government sources. There is no official confirmation yet.
As WELT reports, the German authorities have already set a deportation date: H., who lived in Paderborn, was to be deported to Bulgaria at the beginning of 2023. From there, he had previously travelled to the European Union. According to the Dublin Regulation, the country where the asylum seeker first entered is responsible for the asylum procedure.
Although the deportation had already been planned, it did not take place. According to WELT, Issa al-H. was not found, went into hiding and reappeared within a few months. Therefore, the deportation was temporarily cancelled and the Syrian was transferred to Solingen.
Issa al-H. was born in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor in 1998, Spiegel reports. The capital of the province of the same name in the east of the country is predominantly Sunni Muslim. Issa al-H. also belongs to this Islamic religious group.
When the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, H. was 13 years old. The Islamic State terrorists later occupied the city. In 2017, Syrian troops recaptured Deir ez-Zor, which had been the target of terrorist attacks and suicide bombings several times before and since. Issa al-H. arrived in Germany in December 2022. He applied for asylum in Bielefeld and was granted so-called “subsidiary protection” in 2023. This status is often granted to refugees from countries in war.
German media reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Solingen.
Source: Racurs
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