BERLIN
\nA 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin on Thursday over a knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital\u2019s Holocaust memorial days before February\u2019s general election.
\nThe suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of being a supporter of the Daesh group who intended to \u201ctarget a person of the Jewish faith,\u201d according to the court.
\nHe allegedly approached the 30-year-old victim from behind among the concrete steles of the memorial and \u201cinflicted a 14-centimeter-long (more than five-inch) cut to his throat with a knife,\u201d the court said in a statement before the trial.
\nThe victim, who was visiting the memorial with two friends, was badly injured but managed to stagger out of the steles before collapsing in front of the memorial.
\nA police officer told the court he was on duty outside the US embassy, near the memorial, when he heard people crying for the police.
\n\u201cI went over and saw the victim clutching his throat,\u201d the officer said, recalling that a passer-by had phoned emergency services.
\n\u201cThe attacked tourist turned pale and his eyes closed\u201d while they were waiting for an ambulance, he said.
\nProsecutors told the court that Wassim Al M. had \u201cinternalized Daesh ideology, rejected the Western way of life, and was convinced that a holy war against infidels must be waged worldwide.\u201d
\nThe suspect had traveled to Berlin from his home in the eastern city of Leipzig, according to the court, motivated by his support for Daesh and \u201cdriven by the escalation of the Middle East conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n
He shouted \u201cAllahu akbar,\u201d or God is the greatest, after the attack, the court was told.<\/p>\n
\u2018Religious mission\u2019
\nShortly before carrying out the attack, he allegedly sent a photo of himself to members of Daesh via a messaging service and offered his services as an Daesh member.
\nWassim Al M. \u201cwanted to kill,\u201d prosecutor Michael Neuhaus told AFP on the sidelines of the trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN A 19-year-old Syrian went on trial in Berlin on Thursday over a knife attack on a Spanish tourist at the German capital\u2019s Holocaust memorial days before February\u2019s general election. The suspect, partially named as Wassim Al M., is accused of being a supporter of the Daesh group who intended to \u201ctarget a person of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-515793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n