BERLIN, Germany: A man suspected of helping a convicted attacker carry out a stabbing at Berlin's Holocaust Memorial was arrested in the city on May 27. The attacker had stabbed and seriously injured a Spanish tourist at the Memorial last year.
The suspect, a Syrian man identified only as Khalaf A. under German privacy laws, is believed to have helped in an attempted murder and assault. Prosecutors said he spent time with the attacker the day before the incident and encouraged him to carry out the plan.
The attacker, also a Syrian citizen named Wassim Al M., was convicted in March and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was found guilty of attempted murder and trying to join a foreign terrorist group.
The court said he traveled from Leipzig to Berlin to carry out the attack in support of the Islamic State group. He chose the Holocaust Memorial because he thought he would find Jewish people there. He stabbed a Spanish tourist in the throat and shouted "Allahu akbar," meaning "God is great."
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, located near the Brandenburg Gate, honors the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.
The attack happened just two days before Germany's national election, when immigration had become a major issue after several deadly attacks involving immigrants in the months leading up to the vote.
