Far-right Islamophobic terrorist takes guards hostage in German prison

BERLIN (AA) – A right-wing extremist and white supremacist, who was behind the 2019 Halle terror attack, took two prison guards hostage in Germany, but he was overwhelmed by other guards, authorities said.

The incident occurred on Monday at a prison in Burg in the eastern Saxony-Anhalt state.

According to the Justice Ministry, Stephan Balliet took two staff members of the prison hostage but was overpowered soon by other staff.

Balliet was injured during the release of the hostages. The two freed staff members were reportedly not injured.

It is still unclear how the hostage situation came about.

Police had armed officers in position in front of the prison after the hostage-taking became known.

The State Criminal Investigation Office of Saxony-Anhalt has started investigations.

Balliet, who is a hardcore Islamophobic terrorist, had tried at gunpoint to enter the city’s synagogue in Halle on October 9, 2019, to kill people there. He considered the Jews to be “complicit” in the increasing rates of Muslim immigration in Europe.

After he failed in this, he shot a passer-by in front of the building and shortly afterwards a guest in the snack bar Kiez-Doner.

He later confirmed in a confession that he had originally wanted to storm a mosque or a center of the anti-fascist Antifa group, because he believed they were less guarded. However, he said, he wanted to murder Jews as a priority because, in his view, they were responsible for Muslim immigration to Europe.

Balliet was sentenced in 2021 to life in prison with subsequent preventive detention for two murders and 68 attempted murders, among other charges.