Afghan goes on trial over deadly knife attack on German policeman

Defendant (L) arrives in the courtroom of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart-Stammheim, southern Germany, on February 13, 2025, before the start of his trial. (AFP)

• Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured
• Knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer

STUTTGART: An Afghan man with suspected extremist motives went on trial in Germany on Thursday over a knife attack that killed a policeman and wounded five others at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim last year.
The opening of the trial comes at a time of heated debate about migration in Germany ahead of a snap election on February 23 and following a spate of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.
Even as the proceedings were opening, another Afghan man was arrested Thursday on suspicion of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich, with at least 28 injured.
The defendant in the Mannheim trial, only partially named as Sulaiman A., allegedly used a large hunting knife in a stabbing rampage targeting a rally by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam.
The knifeman initially attacked a speaker and other demonstrators, then stabbed a police officer who rushed in to help, and who died two days later of his wounds.
Sulaiman A. appeared apathetic as the indictment was read out at the higher regional court in Stuttgart.
His defense lawyers Axel Kuester and Mehmet Okur said that during the trial, he would only provide information about himself and not about the charges.
The lawyers declined to comment on whether their client might have a psychiatric disorder, but Kuster said he had learned to speak perfect German and “comes across as extremely pleasant and nice.”
Judge Herbert Anderer said the trial would focus only on whether the suspect was guilty and would avoid getting dragged into wider social or political issues.
“That means we may only briefly touch on some questions and aspects that may be of greater interest to certain people,” he said.
Sulaiman A., who was aged 25 at the time of the May 31 attack, was shot and wounded at the site before he was also arrested.
Many Germans were especially shocked as a video circulating online showed the 29-year-old police officer being repeatedly stabbed in the back of the head.
While the suspect is not being tried on terrorism charges, prosecutors say he sympathized with the Islamic State (IS) group.
According to German media reports, he arrived in Germany in 2013 aged just 14, together with his brother but without their parents.
They were denied asylum but, as unaccompanied minors, granted stays of deportation and permanent residency, and initially placed in care facilities, reports have said.
Several recent attacks have inflamed debate on the influx of several million refugees and migrants to Germany over the past decade.
In August, three people died and five were wounded in a knife rampage claimed by Daesh in the western city of Solingen, in which the Syrian suspect had been slated for deportation but evaded law enforcement.
An attack targeting a group of kindergarten children in the southern city of Aschaffenburg claimed two lives in January, including that of a two-year-old child.
A 28-year-old Afghan man, whom officials describe as having a history of mental health issues, was arrested close to the scene.
The attacks have driven rising support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is polling at around 20 percent ahead of the election.
In the wake of the Aschaffenburg attack, the center-right CDU, currently leading in polls on around 30 percent, demanded a crackdown against irregular migration.
But CDU leader Friedrich Merz sparked outrage by bringing a resolution on the issue to parliament which passed with AfD votes, breaching a long-standing taboo against cooperating with the far right.