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German police arrest Syrian suspected of helping attack at Holocaust memorial

By Thomson Reuters May 27, 2026 | 3:15 AM

BERLIN, May 27 (Reuters) – German police arrested a Syrian citizen on Wednesday suspected of aiding and abetting ​attempted murder and grievous bodily ‌harm in an attack on a tourist at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin last year, prosecutors said.

The arrest of the ‌suspect, ​identified as Khalaf A. ⁠in line with ⁠German privacy laws, follows the sentencing of a Syrian refugee, Wassim Al M., in March to 13 years ​behind bars for attempted murder.

The court found that Wassim Al M. ⁠was a radical ⁠Islamist with antisemitic views who ​had used a knife to stab a ​Spanish tourist in the neck at ‌the memorial in February 2025. The tourist sustained life-threatening injuries.

Prosecutors said they suspected that Khalaf A. had spent ⁠the afternoon before the attack with Wassim Al M. and encouraged him to go ⁠ahead with ‌his plan.

Reuters was not ⁠immediately able to contact the ​suspect’s ‌lawyer.

The Holocaust memorial, a ​maze of ⁠concrete slabs in the heart of the German capital, commemorates the murder of 6 million Jews by Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers, editing by ​Thomas Seythal)