Syrian Youth Gang Member With 200 Crimes Finally Arrested in Germany After Turning 14

A 14-year-old Syrian boy accused of committing around 200 crimes has been arrested in northern Germany after years of violent offenses that terrorized towns in Schleswig-Holstein.

Known to police as Mohamad H., the teenager was taken into custody on Thursday and brought before the district court in Husum on Friday, where a juvenile court judge issued an arrest warrant on three counts of grievous bodily harm.

Images of him arriving at court show him giving photographers the middle finger.

Authorities say the boy, who arrived in Germany with his family nine years ago, began committing crimes at the age of nine and became increasingly violent by 12. He is alleged to have carried out numerous assaults — some involving knives — attacked police officers, and committed multiple thefts in Husum, Bredstedt, Kiel, and on the island of Sylt.

As reported by Bild, the most recent incident occurred in late August, when Mohamad H. allegedly attacked a 52-year-old man with a knife in an underpass at Bredstedt train station, injuring the victim’s leg.

Police and paramedics responded quickly and transported the man to the hospital. Investigators soon identified the attacker, who lived nearby with his mother and three siblings.

The teenager is also believed to be part of the so-called “Heide Gang,” a group known for violence and intimidation around the Heide train station. Members of the gang have repeatedly assaulted other youths, robbed them, and issued threats in the area.

Because Mohamad H. turned 14 earlier this year — the age of criminal responsibility in Germany — authorities were finally able to act and detain him. He has been placed in pre-trial detention.

Syrians are the nationality that is attaining German citizenship faster than any other, according to naturalization data published in June, but arrivals from the Middle Eastern country are disproportionately represented in federal crime statistics.

Earlier this month, a 19-year-old Czech tourist was reportedly raped at Dresden’s main train station by two 15-year-old Syrians, who threatened the man with a knife before robbing and sexually assaulting him.

The same month, German federal prosecutors arrested a Syrian man in Berlin accused of committing torture, murder, and crimes against humanity as part of a pro-Assad militia during the Syrian civil war.

In September, a 59-year-old woman was chased and stabbed to death in the streets of Magdeburg by a Syrian attacker, while in Cuxhaven, a Syrian father allegedly ordered his teenage son to murder his own sister for “honor” — a plot the boy refused to carry out.

Earlier in the summer, a Syrian-born doctor was sentenced to more than four years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl in his office, and a group of Syrian migrants was arrested for sexually assaulting at least nine underage girls at a swimming pool in Hesse.