According to prosecutors at the Dresden Higher Regional Court the Syrian suspect is a radical Islamist who had mistaken the men for a homosexual couple and wanted to punish them with death.

He faces charges of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm after the men were stabbed with kitchen knives on the evening of October 4.

According to the indictment, the young man had been planning an attack in Germany for years.

He came to Germany as a refugee in 2015. In 2018, he had been sentenced to a term in juvenile detention for promoting the Islamic State terrorist network; the sentence was increased after attacks on officials in the prison.

He was released at the end of September 2020. After the stabbing the following month, he initially managed to escape but was caught just under three weeks later.