A year after the knife attack in Bielefeld, the defendant Mahmoud M. was sentenced to life imprisonment. He was convicted of four counts of attempted murder, dangerous bodily harm, and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
The High Regional Court of Düsseldorf, in its ruling released on Monday, also determined that the guilt was exceptionally severe and ordered protective custody.
In the state security trial, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office leveled charges against the 36-year-old Syrian man, alleging that he joined the “Islamic State” (IS) in Syria no later than 2015. According to the indictment, he was deployed in Syria as a fighter until November 2016, handling duties such as guarding checkpoints, serving as a border guard, and working in the IS’s real estate administration. Furthermore, he remained connected to the IS after entering the Federal Republic of Germany in the summer of 2023.
In May 2025, he resolved to kill as many randomly selected people as possible in Germany in the name of a worldwide “holy war”. To achieve this goal, early on the morning of May 18, 2025, he targeted guests at a local establishment in Bielefeld and fatally stabbed them four times, seriously injuring four people.
