Hesse minister: Adult criminal law should apply to young terrorists

Hesse's Interior Minister Roman Poseck has called for adult criminal law to apply to young adults who commit terrorist offenses, expressing strong criticism of the juvenile justice system's leniency. "It cannot be right that adolescents experience the mildness of juvenile criminal law for terrorist acts," Poseck stated, advocating for the "consequence and hardness of adult criminal law."

Poseck's remarks followed the fatal police shooting of a 21-year-old suspect in Berlin, who allegedly carried out an attack during a Christopher Street Day event. The minister voiced his solidarity with those who find it incomprehensible that the suspect, despite a prior record, was at liberty. The suspect had been arrested in November 2025 at BER airport after attempting to join the IS in Syria. Following a period of detention, he was sentenced to 22 months of juvenile detention for preparing a serious act of violence, but the decision on suspending the sentence was postponed.

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It cannot be right that adolescents experience the mildness of juvenile criminal law for terrorist acts. Here, the consequence and hardness of adult criminal law are needed.

Despite the conviction, a court lifted an arrest warrant, leading to the suspect's release. The General Prosecutor's Office had appealed the ruling, and the verdict was not yet legally binding. This situation has intensified the debate about how to handle individuals deemed a security risk, particularly those with extremist ties.

In Hesse alone, approximately 20 individuals are classified as Islamist "Gefährder" (potential offenders). The Interior Ministry defines a "Gefährder" as someone for whom facts suggest they might commit politically motivated crimes of significant importance. A small number of these individuals are believed to be abroad, while a high single-digit number of those remaining in Hesse are in pre-trial detention or serving sentences. Roughly a quarter of these individuals do not hold German citizenship and have faced deportation orders with entry and residence bans.

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I join the voices who cannot comprehend that the Berlin perpetrator was at liberty despite his prior history.