German police have discovered what is believed to be a video confession from the terrorist who attacked a gay pride parade in Berlin on Saturday, in which he is reported to have pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State.
Abdul Ballout, the 21-year-old Lebanese-heritage Islamist who used a van to ram into revellers at the Christopher Street Day pride parade in Berlin on Saturday, is said to have recorded a confession on his phone shortly before the attack, which took the life of a 65-year-old Polish mother and injured 31 others.
According to Bild, Ballout recorded the video inside the vehicle while wearing a mask. In addition to confessing to the planned terror attack, he is also said to have announced his allegiance to ISIS, the terror group which he had attempted to join in Syria last year.
It is suspected that Ballout may have left the phone behind in the vehicle by accident after crashing the van into a tree, after which he fled on foot, initially escaping by disappearing into the crowds of the pride parade.
Following a near day-long manhunt involving thousands of police officers, the 21-year-old terrorist was finally gunned down in a standoff with officers on Sunday. Thus, authorities will have to rely heavily on the examination of his electronic devices to piece together the plotting of the attack and whether he was in contact with any other terrorists.
Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed on Tuesday that, although the suspect is masked in the video confession, he “assumes that the video shows the suspect”. Other devices found by police at Ballout’s apartment will also be analysed, Dobrindt said.
It was further reported on Tuesday by Die Zeit on Tuesday that in 2025, Ballout had been in contact with suspected ISIS members when he travelled to Lebanon in hopes of joining the terror network. According to information allegedly shared with German authorities by Lebanese investigators, Ballout had been recommended to the network by his two cousins, both of whom are said to have fought for ISIS. This will likely raise questions over the decision to release Ballout from detention in May on probation.
Meanwhile, there are growing questions surrounding the failures of authorities in the lead-up to the terror attack on Saturday, with a joint investigation from broadcasters NDR and WDR with Süddeutsche Zeitung stating the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) had installed a hidden camera outside the entrance of Ballout’s apartment building and had recorded video of the would-be terrorist just an hour before the attack.
According to the investigation, Ballout’s phone and social media accounts were also being monitored at the time of the attack. Authorities are said to have stepped up surveillance of the 21-year-old after he was released from juvenile detention and placed on probation with a suspended sentence in May, despite having been accused of attempting to join an ISIS cell while visiting his ancestral homeland of Lebanon last year.
Although initial indications in May had put him in the “red” category for a high risk of terrorism, the Berlin State Criminal Police Office (LKA) subsequently found no indications of “action-oriented behaviour,” and therefore the surveillance was scaled back. At the time of the attack, video footage from the hidden camera outside his apartment was being checked every 24 hours.
Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner has demanded to know why Ballout was freed on a suspended sentence and has argued that there must be changes in the way the state monitors suspected potential terrorists, including introducing the use of ankle tag monitors and digital surveillance.
For his part, Interior Minsiter Dobrindt said on Monday that relying on so-called deradicalisation programmes, such as the one Ballout was mandated to attend after being released in May, was “naïve”.
“Deradicalisation programs are one tool, detention is one tool, deportation is one tool for foreigners. But relying solely on deradicalization would certainly be naive,” he said.
The head of the Violence Prevention Network (VPN) deradicalisation scheme, which Ballout was required to join, Thomas Mücke, said that there was “not the slightest indication of a concrete threat,” describing the future attacker as having a “friendly, uninspiring, and compliant manner.”
However, extremism expert Ahmad Mansour said that the true blame is on the authorities who decided to set Ballout free and rely on the deradicalisation scheme, saying: “It doesn’t work after one, two, or three sessions. The misconception is that we release someone from prison and outsource the responsibility to a civilian organisation, and that they are then supposed to quickly deradicalise these people.”
“Of course, there’s still a lot of speculation involved, but the word ‘failure’ has to be used. How can it be that someone like this, who has been under investigation for some time, who clearly holds Islamist views, and who is even supposed to be deradicalised, is still given the opportunity to carry out such an attack? The security agencies need to be critically examined,” Mansour said.
