The suspect in the Germany attack was motivated by Islamic State group ideology, prosecutors say

SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — A Syrian man on Sunday was ordered held on suspicion of murder and membership in a terrorist organization in connection with the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary.

A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ordered 26-year-old Issa Al H. held pending further investigation and a possible indictment after federal prosecutors said that he shared the radical ideology of the Islamic State extremist group — and was acting on those beliefs when he stabbed his victims repeatedly from behind in the head and upper body.

The ruling came after the suspect turned himself in, saying that he was responsible for the attack, police said. He is also suspected of attempted murder and serious bodily injury, prosecutors said. His last name wasn't released in line with German privacy rules.

The suspect, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, was taken Sunday from the police station in Solingen for the initial court appearance.

He “shares the ideology of the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State” and on the basis of his “radical Islamic convictions” decided “to kill the largest possible number of those he considers unbelievers” at the festival, the Office of the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement.

The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.

On Saturday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. IS said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians, and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

The attack comes amid debate over immigration before regional elections on Sept. 1 in Germany’s Saxony and Thuringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four other people injured.

Friday's attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.

People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men, ages 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said that the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.

The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.

“Warum?” — meaning “why” — asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears.

Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.

“Why does something like this have to happen? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.

IS declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.

Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.

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David McHugh contributed from Frankfurt.

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted to a police car in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

The alleged perpetrator of the knife attack in Solingen is escorted from a helicopter in Karlsruhe, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary. (Uli Deck/dpa via AP)

A man looks at flowers laid Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations in the city center of Solingen, Germany. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed in Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Emergency vehicles and police officers stand at a cordon in the city center of Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed in Solingen, Germany, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Police emergency vehicles stand at a cordon in the city center of Solingen, Germany, in the early morning of Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, following Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Flowers and candles are placed Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024, near the scene of Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations in the city center of Solingen, Germany. (Thomas Banneyer/dpa via AP)

Special police forces carry out an operation at a refugee shelter in Solingen, Germany, on Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, during an investigation into a fatal knife attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

Police and ambulances near the scene where people were killed and injured in an attack at a festival in Solingen, western Germany, the German dpa news agency reported, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (Gianni Gattus/dpa via AP)

Police officers stand at a cordon in the city center in the early morning in Solingen, Germany, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024, following Friday's deadly attack at the city's 650th anniversary celebrations. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)

People lay flowers near the scene of a knife attack in Solingen city center, Germany, Saturday Aug. 24, 2024, after three people were killed and at least eight people were wounded Friday night at the festival. (Henning Kaiser/dpa via AP)

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday warned that countries shouldn’t interfere in the internal affairs of other nations, while also urging world leaders to take stronger action in response to intensifying global conflicts.

The mixed messages came as Lula spoke to the United Nations General Assembly, just before U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the group. Lula criticized external interference in Brazil’s internal affairs, only weeks ahead of his country's elections.

“We will not allow the enemies of democracy, whether domestic or foreign, to undermine popular will. Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians. Brazil will continue to be a sovereign country,” Lula said. “Nobody will turn us away from this path.”

Lula's speech comes amid escalating tensions between the U.S. and Brazil. Last year, the U.S. imposed an initial round of tariffs, citing what Trump called a “witch hunt” trial against the country’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest following his conviction for an attempted coup.

Since then, relations between the two countries have become further strained, amid growing allegations of foreign interference in October’s elections in Brazil, in which Lula is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive presidential term.

His main political rival is Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, one of the sons of the former president.

The Trump administration has publicly backed Bolsonaro. Recently, Trump designated two Brazilian criminal groups, the First Command of the Capital, or PCC, and the Red Command, or CV, as foreign terrorist organizations. Lula rejected the decision, and some analysts and politicians have argued that the move could be intended to interfere in the country's election by portraying Lula as soft on organized crime.

Speaking to the U.N., Lula said Brazil’s ‌electoral ⁠system is “modern and robust” and warned against disinformation campaigns seeking to distort public debate during the campaign, noting that “democracy is once again in jeopardy."

“Brazil ​is nobody’s backyard,” he said. “We are once again ⁠witnessing external interference in electoral processes.”

Lula said Brazil does not underestimate the challenge of organized crime but "will not outsource the responsibility of defending” its own borders. His remarks Tuesday follow the unveiling last Friday of a pilot plan to expand the federal government’s role in fighting gang violence in Rio de Janeiro.

During his speech, Lula also addressed the Brazilian economy, saying that despite the massive tariffs, the country will break a new export record this year.

Lula started his speech railing against what he called weakness in the U.N.'s actions on wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and called for reform of the U.N. Security Council, saying that in 2025 alone the world “will see the highest number of armed conflicts since World War II” with “trillions of dollars financing a new arms race.”

“The U.N. is failing in one of its highest missions: to save humanity from the scourge of war,” Lula said. ”Its credibility has never been lower."

Lula said the U.N. must recover its capacity for dialogue and mediation and that it is time to choose between multilateralism or global fragmentation.

“Concessions to the law of the stronger have surpassed all limits. This is not idealism, but pure realism," he said. “War is not the continuation of politics by other means; it’s the complete breakdown of politics.”

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)