Status: 05.02.2023 6:47 p.m
After the knife attack on a regional train in Schleswig-Holstein, further details about the suspect became known: He is said to have “stammered” threats before the crime and compared himself to the Breitscheidplatz assassin Amri.
Brokstedt’s alleged knife attacker, Ibrahim A., is said to have compared himself to the assassin from Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, Anis Amri, a few months before his release from Hamburg prison. “There is not just one Anis Amri, there are several, I am one too,” he said to staff, as the judicial authority said when asked by the dpa news agency.
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 asked another employee twice on the way to the farm whether he also wanted to “under the tires”.
Verbally aggressive and inappropriate
According to the authorities, Ibrahim A. repeatedly stood out as verbally aggressive and inappropriate during his detention. He also tried to emphasize his demands with insults. Apart from the incident of August 6, 2022, however, no statements were documented that could suggest an extremist connection. The rest of his execution behavior was also unremarkable in this respect.
According to the authorities, various measures have been established in the Hamburg prison system to identify extremist prisoners. Upon admission, the security authorities are automatically asked whether there is any evidence of an extremist background. “Such findings were not available here,” said the authority. In addition, prisoners would be specially recorded where there is evidence of a relevant crime, such as a state security offence. There was no such offense here.
Finally, the staff observed whether there were any indications of an extremist attitude or radicalization. The institution did not find any corresponding indications in the overall view of the execution behavior, as the authority further said. Immediately after the crime of January 25, contact was made with the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which confirmed that Ibrahim A. is not known to be an extremist.
Released from custody a week before the crime
The 33-year-old Palestinian Ibrahim A. is said to have stabbed other passengers with a knife on a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg on January 25. Two young people died and five were seriously injured. A. is in custody on suspicion of double murder and attempted manslaughter in four cases. The suspect, who has multiple criminal records, had been released from custody in Hamburg just under a week earlier.
A few days before the fatal knife attack, the alleged perpetrator had been psychiatrically assessed – without any particular abnormalities being found. According to its own statements, the Hamburg judicial authority handed over a copy of the prisoner’s personal file to the Itzehoe public prosecutor’s office on February 3. The authority for justice and consumer protection had previously contacted the Itzehoe public prosecutor’s office to offer their support.
Authorities accuse each other of negligence
After the deadly knife attack, the authorities in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein accused each other of failure to communicate about the alleged perpetrator.
On December 19, 2016, Anis Amri – the assassin named by Ibrahim – drove a truck into the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz near the Berlin Memorial Church. As a result of the attack, 13 people died.