Reuters
[Source: Reuters]
Germany’s interior minister announced a security overhaul on Monday after a deadly vehicle attack near Berlin’s Pride celebration prompted an angry debate on why the suspected driver had not been in prison at the time.
The suspect, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, was identified as 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout, who had been convicted and sentenced to jail time in May for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state.
Ballout was out and free at the time of the attack on Saturday, prosecutors said, as he had been convicted under juvenile law for the earlier offence, despite his age, and had been released under the supervision of a probation officer for six months.
Applying juvenile criminal law to adult security threats was “unacceptable,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told Bild newspaper.
Dobrindt said he would change that and bring in measures to let authorities fit dangerous people with ankle bracelets.
New powers to make preventative detentions would also “take dangerous individuals off the streets,” he added.
The vehicle ploughed into crowds in Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday, killing a Polish woman in her 60s.
Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots born and raised in Berlin, was shot dead a day later when he ran at officers with a bladed weapon, police said.
