- A 22-year-old Syrian man was never deported despite dozens of prior suspected offenses before his June 21 Cologne rampage.
- He allegedly tried to drag a passenger onto the tracks, then attacked more victims on a train and at Cologne's main station.
- A Justice Ministry response to an AfD inquiry revealed 52 suspected offenses, including 24 assault allegations and a rape claim.
- None of the allegations led to a conviction, and the suspect is now held in a psychiatric hospital.
- Germany has not deported a single Syrian criminal since Jan. 21 despite over 11,000 Syrians legally required to leave.
A 22-year-old Syrian man accused of attacking multiple rail passengers in Cologne on June 21 had been investigated for dozens of prior offenses — including 24 assault allegations, a robbery, two fraud cases and a rape allegation — yet was never deported, according to documents released by the North Rhine-Westphalia Justice Ministry. The case has renewed scrutiny of Germany's struggling deportation system, even as Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government works to make good on promises to remove criminal migrants.
Attack spanned three stops before arrest
Federal police say the assault began about 3:10 p.m. at the Cologne-Trimbornstrasse stop, when the suspect grabbed a traveler and attempted to drag him toward the tracks. The two men fell to the ground before bystanders separated them; the victim suffered bruises and abrasions. Police praised the witnesses, telling Westdeutscher Rundfunk they "behaved correctly" by stepping in together.
The suspect then boarded an S19 train toward Cologne's main station, striking two more passengers in the face en route, according to witnesses and video evidence. At the station, he beat a 47-year-old man inside a fast-food restaurant and kept hitting him even after federal officers arrived. Police said he was under the influence of narcotics when they took him into custody; he was later committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he remains held under a legal provision reserved for suspects who may not be criminally responsible for their actions. Cologne prosecutors are investigating charges including intentional bodily harm and interference with rail traffic.
Ministry answer details a long trail of suspected crimes
The scope of the man's history surfaced Sept. 25, when the Justice Ministry answered a parliamentary inquiry from Alternative for Germany lawmaker Markus Wagner. Its accounting spanned a dozen categories: five thefts, one robbery, 11 assaults, 13 dangerous assaults, 11 narcotics violations, two fraud cases, two property-damage incidents, three threats, one insult, one count of receiving stolen goods, one count of resisting officers, and one rape allegation.
None of it produced a conviction. The ministry was careful to note that police records only "rest on suspicion" and cannot establish "the correctness of the allegation." His Federal Central Register extract shows only youth-court sanctions — the kind that typically never reach the certificate of good conduct employers request, a blind spot that appears to have kept much of his record off the radar of the immigration system as well.
Germany's deportation machinery has stalled for Syrians
The case lands amid a broader breakdown in enforcement. Despite more than 11,000 Syrians legally required to leave Germany, the country has not deported a single Syrian criminal since Jan. 21, according to Welt am Sonntag. The holdup is bureaucratic: no replacement travel documents needed for the removals have been issued since late January, and it's unclear whether federal police are even pursuing them through Syria's embassy in Berlin.
Merz, who once argued the "two-thirds" of Syrian men in Germany "who do not work... can go back, and many must go back," met Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Berlin in March. Al-Sharaa reportedly told him he'd like roughly 80 percent of Syrians in Germany to return home within three years. Merz agreed many were "needed at home", yet six months later, the paperwork to remove even convicted offenders still hasn't moved.
For a chancellor who campaigned on restoring order, a suspect flagged two dozen times for violence and never removed is the kind of case that outlasts a news cycle — and it's one voters are unlikely to forget the next time Berlin promises tougher enforcement.
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