German lawmakers seek changes to anti-terror laws after Pride attack
by Danielle Haynes · UPIJuly 27 (UPI) -- German lawmakers called for stricter anti-terrorism laws Monday, two days after a 21-year-old drove a vehicle into a crowd at Berlin's annual Pride event, killing a woman.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, said individuals considered to be security threats should be monitored more closely going forward. The suspect in Saturday's attack at Tiergarten park had been released in May from prison after being sentenced for preparing a serious act of violence by trying to join the Islamic State terror group in Syria, The Guardian reported.
"If we cannot detain such potential offenders, we must do everything we can to restrict their freedom of movement as much as possible," Merz said in a news conference, The New York Times reported.
"It was an attack on our free society. We will do everything to protect and defend this freedom, this openness and the liberal values of our society."
Police shot and killed Abdul Ballout on Sunday after a manhunt led them to a confrontation with him at an allotment garden complex in the Spandau district of Berlin. He's accused of driving a vehicle into the crowd at the Pride event before then attacking multiple people with a machete.
A 65-year-old woman died in the attack and 29 other people sustained injuries. Maciej Wewior, a representative for Poland's foreign ministry, said the woman who died was a Polish citizen in a post on X.
Ballout was German-born with Lebanese ancestry.
Felor Badenberg, Germany's top justice official and fellow member of the CDU, said the government should overhaul the juvenile justice system.
"In the wake of this attack, my conclusion is that, in cases such as this, the perpetrators must indeed be punished more severely," he told German public broadcaster ARD.
"We must fundamentally examine whether the legal criteria we currently have for applying juvenile criminal law are still appropriate for the times."
The more conservative Alternative für Deutschland party said the government failed to prevent radical Islam in Germany.