Speaking to reporters on Sunday, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said evidence pointed to it being an “Islamist terror attack”.

“We are dealing with a suspected perpetrator, who had previously drawn attention to himself through a high volume of criminal offences, radicalisation and affiliation with the Islamist scene,” Dobrindt said.

A statement released by the Berlin public prosecutor’s office revealed further details about Ballout’s criminal history.

In May 2025, prosecutors said he travelled via Turkey to Lebanon, with the intention of joining the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria. While in Lebanon he allegedly made contact with several individuals he believed were members of IS.

He was arrested in Lebanon in July 2025 and sentenced to three months in prison for incitement to religious and sectarian conflict.

Then in November 2025 he returned to Germany where he was arrested at Berlin Brandenburg Airport and held in pre-trial detention.

In May this year, he was sentenced to one year and 10 months in prison for “preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state”. The decision was deferred for six months and he was placed under the supervision of a parole officer.

He was previously convicted of assault and robbery in 2022, and of robbing a victim of headphones in 2020.