Mannheim stabbing at a rally

On the morning of 31 May 2024, an assailant armed with a knife attacked a rally on Mannheim's Marktplatz organised by the Citizens' Movement Pax Europa (BPE), an anti-Islam group whose main speaker that day was activist Michael Stürzenberger. According to reporting compiled by Wikipedia, the attacker stabbed Stürzenberger and several other rally participants before turning on a police officer who intervened. In total, six people were wounded by the knife. Stürzenberger was stabbed in the face, chest and thigh and underwent emergency surgery.

Police officer Rouven Laur, 29, who was on duty securing the event, was stabbed in the neck. He was placed in an induced coma and died of his injuries two days later, on 2 June 2024. The attack ended when another officer shot and wounded the assailant, who was arrested at the scene. The suspect, an Afghan national who was 25 at the time and identified under German privacy rules as Sulaiman A., had arrived in Germany around 2013 as a minor and had an earlier asylum claim rejected.

Germany's Federal Prosecutor General took over the case, citing indications of an Islamist motive; investigators and the court found that the defendant had radicalised over years and sympathised with the Islamic State, though no direct contact with the group was established. He confessed during the proceedings. On 16 September 2025, the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart convicted him of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment, finding the guilt to be particularly grave, a determination that makes early release after 15 years unlikely. The verdict later became final.

This was a fatal Islamist-motivated terrorist attack, established as such by German authorities and the convicting court; there is no evidence linking it to Russian or state-directed hybrid-warfare activity, and it should not be framed that way. The recorded fatality is police officer Rouven Laur. The motive, radicalisation toward Islamic State ideology, with the Gaza war cited by the perpetrator as a turning point, is well supported by court findings and consistent reporting. Exact charge counts varied slightly across outlets; the core outcome (murder conviction, life sentence, particularly grave guilt) is firmly corroborated.