Knife attack in train
Brokstedt offender is said to have compared himself to Anis Amri – Hamburg’s Senator for Justice under pressure
Anna Gallina (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen), Senator for Justice and Consumer Protection in Hamburg, sits on the Judiciary Committee of the Hamburg Parliament
© Marcus Brandt / DPA
Ibrahim A. is said to have compared himself to the assassin from the Berlin Christmas market, Anis Amri, before the knife attack on the regional train near Brokstedt. The statements recorded by a Hamburg JVA now bring Justice Senator Gallina into distress.
After the announcement of possibly extremist statements by the suspected knife attacker from Brokstedt, Ibrahim A., Hamburg’s Senator for Justice Anna Gallina came under pressure. The opposition in the Hamburg Parliament, the state parliament, suggested that the Green politician resign on Monday. “If it turns out that Ibrahim A. was able to threaten attacks while in prison and was still released without consequences, Justice Senator Gallina will finally be unstoppable,” said CDU faction leader Dennis Thering.
At a special session of the Judiciary Committee, Gallina had to comment again, Thering demanded. The committee had already met last Thursday. The SPD parliamentary group, which governs together with the Greens, also considers a special session to be useful. Finally, Gallina’s Greens faction said such a meeting was appropriate.
Brokstedt perpetrators apparently spoke of the Breitscheidplatz attack in custody
A few months before his release from custody in Hamburg, Ibrahim A. is said to have compared himself to the assassin from Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, Anis Amri. “There is not just one Anis Amri, there are several, I am one too,” he said to officials, the judicial authority said on Sunday. The statement from August 2022 was recorded in a so-called perception sheet in the prisoner’s personal file.
It also shows that on August 6, 2022, when preparing for the free hour in the yard, Ibrahim A. “stuttered to himself” after the perception of an employee: “Big car, Berlin, that’s the truth”. According to the information, he told another employee twice on the way to the farm whether he also wanted to “under the tires”.
The 33-year-old Palestinian Ibrahim A. is said to have stabbed other passengers with a knife in a regional train traveling from Kiel to Hamburg near Brokstedt on January 25. Two young people died and five others were injured. On December 19, 2016, Anis Amri drove a truck into the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz near Berlin’s Memorial Church. 13 people were killed.
Hamburg opposition on the barricades
From the point of view of the justice policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Urs Tabbert, there are now a number of questions about the registration system in the prisons, the assessment of extremist offenders and the information of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “It is regrettable that the information on this was not provided last week – but if investigative considerations stood in the way of informing Parliament, this is understandable,” explained Tabbert.
The judicial policy spokeswoman for the left-wing faction, Cansu Özdemir, criticized the fact that relevant information was withheld from the opposition and the public at the Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday. She called on Gallina to draw conclusions: “It’s enough now.” AfD faction leader Dirk Nockemann demanded: “Everything has to be on the table.” The case of Ibrahim A. is becoming more and more a failure of the Hamburg judiciary. “How can it be that a multiple offender, in the style of Anis Amri, is making assassination plans and the authorities are not alarmed?” asked Nockemann.