24 hours after the bloody Islamist terrorist attack in Solingen, which killed three people and left four others in critical condition, German authorities arrested a key suspect after raiding a refugee facility in Solingen.

As it became known from the Secretary of the Interior of the state Herbert Royle, there is evidence and not just indications that the arrested person is the perpetrator.

According to German media, he allegedly surrendered to the authorities voluntarily, wearing the clothes of the attack. Earlier, responsibility for the terrorist attack had been taken by the Islamic State, speaking of revenge for the “death of Muslims in Palestine”.

Spiegel: The arrested should have been deported

According to information from Spiegel, the alleged attacker named Isa al-H. is 26 years old, was born in Syria and came to Germany in December 2022 from Bulgaria seeking asylum and more specifically submitting a relevant application to the Migration and Asylum Service (BAMF) in Bielefeld . It had not concerned the authorities for suspected connections with Islamist circles, except he visited mosques for prayer.

Spiegel also reports, citing police sources, that under European asylum rules the alleged perpetrator should normally have been returned to Bulgaria, the country of first entry that was responsible for his asylum application, which he did not do although the Bulgarian authorities reportedly agreed.

He was then reportedly on a German deportation list, but his deportation also did not proceed and failed in June 2023. Since then he has remained in Germany under subsidiary refugee protection.

The case has meanwhile been taken over by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe due to its seriousness, as it relates to public safety. German intelligence and Interior Secretary Nancy Fesser have long spoken of an increased risk of Islamist attacks in Germany because of the war raging in the Middle East and Germany’s support for Israel.