BEIRUT: A German man of Lebanese origin who was killed by police following an attack in Berlin had previously served a prison sentence in Lebanon over links to people suspected of association with Daesh.
Abd Al-Ballout, 21, was shot dead by police on Sunday night following the incident near a Christopher Street Day Pride parade on Saturday evening that left one woman dead and 29 other people injured, German media reported.
Berlin police and prosecutors said Al-Ballout was suspected of driving a car into pedestrians near Tiergarten park before leaving the vehicle and attacking people with a bladed weapon.
Police officers later found him hiding and opened fire after he ran toward them carrying a sharp object.
The case attracted little attention in Lebanon, where the media remained focused on domestic crimes and security developments in the south.
Al-Ballout was born in Germany to Lebanese parents and had traveled to Lebanon more than a year ago in an unsuccessful attempt to reach Syria and join Daesh. Lebanese security services arrested him after he communicated with people suspected of links to the group.
Lebanon’s Permanent Military Court convicted him on several charges, including incitement to religious conflict, and sentenced him to three months in prison.
After completing his sentence he returned to Germany in November, where he was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport and placed in pretrial detention.
Al-Ballout had been known to German police and judicial authorities since his teenage years, initially in connection with violence and theft before becoming the subject of investigations into extremism and support for Daesh.
In 2022 a Berlin court convicted him of assault and robbery-related extortion over two incidents in 2019 and 2020. The first involved an assault on a pupil in a school playground, while the second concerned the theft of headphones, carried out with another suspect, in Berlin’s Innsbrucker Platz district.
Al-Ballout was handed juvenile measures, which he later completed.
His case became more serious after authorities accused him of attempting to join Daesh in Syria. A court found that he had posted prohibited Daesh propaganda on social media in June 2024.
On May 12, a juvenile court sentenced him to 22 months in prison after convicting him of preparing a serious act of violence threatening state security and of offenses related to laws banning extremist organizations.
The ruling was not final, however, and the court deferred for six months a decision on whether to suspend the sentence.
Al-Ballout was released under conditions, including judicial supervision, after the court took into account his admission of most of the offenses, his claim that he had distanced himself from Daesh and the time he had already spent in detention in Lebanon and Germany.
On July 3, police raided his home on suspicion of a weapons offense after he appeared in a social media image holding what looked like a firearm. But officers found only a toy gun and the investigation was closed.
The case comes amid debate in Lebanon over calls for an amnesty for detainees accused of extremism or contact with terrorist organizations. Those potentially covered include suspects accused of fighting the Lebanese army in several confrontations, including the 2014 clashes in the Arsal border region near the Lebanese-Syrian frontier.
