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[…]

On May 31 [2024], days before the European parliamentary election, an Afghan identified by the [German] authorities as Sulaiman Ataee, 26, attempted to kill a notorious Bavarian anti-Islam activist called Michael Stürzenberger.

As Stürzenberger addressed a small rally in Mannheim [a city in Germany], the knifeman went after him, wounding Stürzenberger and four others and killing a police officer called Rouven Laur. The attacker was then shot by another armed policeman.

Ataee is on trial for the attack in Stuttgart higher regional court, facing one charge of murder and five of attempted murder. He has admitted carrying out the violence and said he saw it as his “religious duty” after being radicalised by the war in Gaza.

In the days before the attack, however, there were internet searches from IP addresses in Russia for phrases such as “terror attack in Mannheim” and “Michael Stürzenberger attack”, according to ZDF’s Terra X History documentary. The same computers were also used to search for publicly available webcams on the central market square in Mannheim where the mass stabbing later took place.

[…]

Konstantin von Notz, a Green Party MP and head of the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight committee, said the “intensification” of the attacks in the run-up to the election had been suspicious and the internet searches were grounds for an official investigation.

“I think it’s totally obvious that these digital traces and their evaluation and analysis could be an important part of coming much closer to the truth, and so they should be included,” von Notz said.

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[Edit title for clarity.]