Kabinett: Zehn Maßnahmen für mehr Schutz gegen islamistischen Terror

The German federal government aims to draw lessons from the Islamist terrorist attack during Berlin's Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade, taking action with ten measures. One proposal includes imposing a minimum one-year prison sentence for especially dangerous knife and weapon attacks that pose a threat to life or cause severe health risks.

Islamist attacks in recent years have often involved knives or vehicles. The federal interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, and justice minister, Stefanie Hubig, have agreed on this approach. The youth justice system will clarify that when courts apply this to juveniles, a justification for doing so must be explicitly requested.

The attacker, Abdul B., was a 21-year-old IS supporter who killed a woman and injured at least 31 people on July 25th, just outside the CSD event in Tiergarten. He fled initially and was later shot by police in Berlin-Spandau. Abdul B. had been known to authorities as a radical Islamist. He was released in May 2026 after a one-year and ten-month youth sentence for preparing a serious threat to state security, involving traveling to Lebanon to join the Islamic State in Syria and spreading IS propaganda, which violated the Associations Act.

The court placed him on a pre-trial custody for six months, during which he must attend a de-radicalization program. The ten-point plan also proposes that not only the federal police and federal criminal police but also the state prosecution authorities can temporarily secure telecommunications data from providers under certain conditions, such as evidence of a committed crime or an existing danger situation.