Far-right perpetrator of 2019 synagogue attack in Halle, Germany jailed for life

Stephan Balliet, 28, the gunman who killed two and injured several others during a live-streamed 2019 attack on a synagogue in the German city of Halle, has been jailed for life by a German court.

Balliet shot and killed a female passerby and a man in a kebab shop during the attack on October 9, 2019, after he tried and failed to enter a synagogue where some 52 people were praying. He also placed an improvised explosive device at the door of the synagogue, which failed to explode.

He expressed no remorse throughout the trial, describing the Jewish people as his “enemies.” He also denied the Holocaust during his court case, itself a criminal offense under German law.

At the time of the attack, German police stated that Balliet had a “right-wing extremist background,” adding that he had posted a manifesto online in which he detailed his planned “massacre,” the weapons he used and his ideology, and described Jews as “the root of all problems.”

The attack, which streamed on the platform Twitch for roughly 35 minutes, was carried out on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. 

Balliet fled the scene, and led authorities on an 80-kilometer (50 mile) chase from Halle using a rented car, but was captured by police with the aid of a helicopter unit a short time later. 

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, federal prosecutor Peter Frank described it as a terror attack. It was described in the media as one of the worst anti-Semitic acts in Germany since World War II.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!