Palestinian Islamist convicted of attempted murder of German officials
Asylum seeker sought bloody revenge against Christians, Germans
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALSupporters of the Anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) hold German flags during a protest in Berlin, Germany May 27, 2018(photo credit: REUTERS/HANNIBAL HANSCHKE)
A German court in the southern city of Augsburg on Wednesday sentenced a radical Islamist Palestinian asylum seeker to a 10-year prison term for attempting to murder judges and prosecutors. Haidar A., the extremist Palestinian, had previously been sentenced in 2017 for attempting to behead a refugee.“It’s amazing how a young man can be so caught up in hate, anger and blind rage,” said presiding judge Sandra Mayer, according to the report of the local Augsburger Allgemeine paper. She added that “Haidar A. is caught in almost medieval ways of thinking, and the court has little hope that he will develop for the better.”The court sentenced the 26-year-old Haidar for six attempted murders on Wednesday. During the judicial process in the summer of 2017, he attempted to take the weapon of a police office in the courtroom. He was, according to the Augsburger Allgemeine, upset that the court sentenced him to a lengthy prison term for attempting to behead an asylum seeker with a knife in the town of Hurlach – a municipality in the German state of Bavaria.Haidar also spat in the direction of the judge’s bench and screamed: “To hell with you and those who created you.”According to the paper’s report, Haider wanted to behead the refugee because he “insulted his religious feelings.” The court sentenced him to 12 years and nine months in prison. When the sentence was announced, Haidar tossed his shoe in the direction of the judge and attempted to secure the firearm of a police officer. The combined sentences from 2017 and Wednesday likely mean that Haidar could serve a prison term longer than 20 years.Haidar wrote in a letter to cousins that judge is a “whore” and the other judges are her “pimps,” adding in the letter that he wants to kill the judges. Haidar also admitted in a letter he sent to the court that he wanted to carry out a campaign of bloody revenge on Germans and Christians. The German Bild paper reported that he wrote to the panel of judges overseeing his case:“I promise, if I get a pig from your worshipers of the cross in my hands, I will drink his blood. I’ll spit at you and your cross. “German authorities frequently decline to release the last name of criminals and defendants to protect privacy rights. Judge Mayer said that Haidar presents himself as the victim and blames his situation on the fellow refugee in the asylum shelter where he lived, who he sought to murder, as well as the judicial system who prosecuted his action. The judge said Haidar accused the judicial process and other foreigners of “hostility toward Muslims.”Meyer explained: “It has nothing to do with the fact that the defendant is a foreigner or Muslim, but only that he wanted to kill people,” noting that it was strange how a person who was taken in and received as a refugee in Germany could develop such hatred against the state and society.Walter Rubach, the criminal defense attorney for Haidar, told the Augsburger Allgemeine that he believes Haidar will not be released before his prison term is completed, and because he is a Palestinian without a passport, it will be difficult to extradite him anywhere.
