A German court on Wednesday sentenced a Syrian national who belonged to the Islamic State to life in prison for a deadly stabbing rampage last year that killed three people and fueled a national debate about migration.
Issa al Hasan, 27, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder and membership of the Islamic State in the attack in the western German city of Solingen, which also injured eight people. The court ordered that Mr. Hasan be kept in custody even after he becomes eligible for parole in 15 years.
The attack occurred last August, after Mr. Hasan left his room in a refugee group home carrying a large knife and walked to an open-air stage set up nearby as part of a local festival. He tried to kill as many people as possible over the course of about two minutes.
Mr. Hasan attacked 13 people, killing three and seriously wounding seven others. After severely injuring a concertgoer who tried to stop him, he slipped into the crowd and was picked up by the police a day later.
Mr. Hasan entered Germany in 2022 and his asylum request was denied. But he evaded an attempt to deport him to Bulgaria, where he had first entered the European Union. A separate inquiry is looking into how Mr. Hasan managed to remain living in Germany.
Mr. Hasan was radicalized before he entered Germany and had announced his plan to attack on an Islamic State chat group before he carried it out. The Islamic State, which took responsibility for the rampage, distributed a video of him making an oath of allegiance on his webcam.
But the attack prompted a wider debate about how effectively the authorities keep track of refugees or migrants in the country. It may have also given the far-right AfD a boost in several state elections that took place in the weeks after the attack.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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