Suspect in Berlin LGBT Pride attack was freed after conviction for trying to join IS

Berlin’s Tiergarten District Court sentenced Abdul Ballout on 12 May to 22 months’ youth detention for trying to join Islamic State (IS) and distributing its propaganda, but released him from pretrial custody. Two and a half months later, Ballout was named the principal suspect in the 25 July attack near the Christopher Street Day (CSD) LGBT Pride event, in which one woman was killed and 29 people were injured.

According to a joint statement by Berlin’s General Prosecutor’s Office and courts , the court found him guilty of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and two breaches of a ban under the Associations Act. Investigators found that Ballout had posted IS material on Instagram and travelled through Turkey to Lebanon in May 2025, intending to reach Syria and join the group. He was sentenced to three months in prison in Lebanon; after returning to Germany in November 2025, he spent nearly six months in pretrial custody in Berlin.

Tagesspiegel, which reviewed the judgment , reported that the court took into account Ballout’s admissions, the time he had already spent in custody and the absence of an immediate danger because his plan had been “amateurishly” prepared. The court applied youth criminal law, finding that Ballout, who was 20 at the time of the offences, had delays in maturity and development and remained open to educational influence. It did not grant him a conventional suspended sentence: the decision on whether to suspend the custodial sentence was deferred for six months. The judgment itself said immediate suspension was inappropriate because Ballout had continued to take an interest in IS media after his Lebanese imprisonment.

During this period of provisional probation, Ballout was placed under supervision and ordered to attend counselling, including deradicalisation sessions. The arrest warrant was lifted because pretrial detention is intended to secure criminal proceedings, not to serve as punishment in advance. The judgment was not final: prosecutors had sought a sentence of more than two years without the possibility of suspension, asked for him to remain in custody and appealed.

After the attack, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called the decision “incomprehensible”, while several politicians demanded tighter rules on applying youth law to adults. Youth-criminal-law expert Alexander Baur responded that courts already have the power to detain a person they consider a continuing threat and that tougher legislation would probably not have prevented the attack; risk assessments can be wrong, he said, according to Tagesspiegel . Police shot Ballout dead during an attempted arrest on 26 July; according to police, he charged at officers with a bladed object.