After the deadly knife attack in the regional train, the authorities in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia are working on the Ibrahim A. case. There are doubts about his statelessness and his criminal record is even longer than expected. The Palestinians will probably lose their protected status.
New questions have arisen about the nationality of Brokstedt’s alleged perpetrator. “The accused has an unclear nationality,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s Integration Minister Aminata Touré in the Interior and Legal Affairs Committee of the state parliament in Kiel. No determination of statelessness was made by the authorities. Interior Minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack therefore only described the alleged perpetrator Ibrahim A. in the committee as a Palestinian and no longer as a stateless person. The Gaza-born man traveled to Germany on December 24, 2014, according to a biographical overview from the city of Kiel.
He was granted so-called subsidiary protection status. That means the man could come up with reasons why he shouldn’t be deported. In 2021, proceedings to withdraw subsidiary protection were initiated against him. According to the Green politician Touré, the Kiel immigration office may still be responsible today. She understands that many people wondered whether revoking protection status could have prevented the crime. “One can only speculate in this area at the moment.”
In the attack on a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg on January 25, a 17-year-old and a 19-year-old were killed. Both were a couple, said the CDU politician Sütterlin-Waack in the committee. Two of the five injured were temporarily in a coma, but could speak again. They would still be treated in intensive care units. An arrest warrant was issued against the alleged perpetrator Ibrahim A. for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted manslaughter.
According to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, no decision has yet been taken on withdrawing the so-called subsidiary protection status for the knife attacker from Brokstedt. The reason given by a department head before the interior and legal committee of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament was that it was not possible to give Ibrahim A. a legal hearing because he did not have a permanent address. He did not respond to mail to a stored address.
If the authority had known about the pre-trial detention in Hamburg, it would have been easy, said the department head. The exchange with the foreigners authority in Kiel did not result in any corresponding information either. Now, after the arrest of Ibrahim A. after the deadly knife attack in a regional train from Kiel to Hamburg, a legal hearing can be granted. Then it is likely that the protection status will be revoked.
The authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia are also working on the case. According to the Bonn public prosecutor’s office, the criminal history of the perpetrator was more extensive than previously thought. After that, more than 20 investigations were conducted against the man in North Rhine-Westphalia, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Most of them, however, would have affected minor offenses and had been discontinued.
Serious allegations were therefore on the one hand a dangerous bodily harm – here he should have hit a man with a chain – and a suspicion of rape. But these two procedures were also discontinued. The man was finally convicted in NRW in three cases.
