Ten Syrian nationals have been convicted in Germany after a revenge-driven apartment raid in Hamburg ended in the death of a 15-year-old Iraqi boy who fell from an eighth-floor balcony while fleeing the attackers.
The Hamburg Regional Court ruled that seven of the defendants were guilty of aggravated robbery and manslaughter, while three others were convicted of aiding and abetting. An eleventh member of the gang fled to Syria. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The fatal fall unfolded during a coordinated nighttime attack in the Wilstorf district on April 14, 2025. According to the court, eight men forced their way into an eighth-floor apartment, while three accomplices remained outside acting as lookouts.
Inside the flat, four young men aged between 15 and 21 were caught off guard despite having feared an attack following earlier threats. The group broke in by kicking down the door and smashing a glass partition with a machete.
In an attempt to escape, the occupants fled onto the balcony. One managed to reach a lower level, but the 15-year-old Iraqi, identified as Saif I., lost his footing after climbing over the railing and fell to his death.
Presiding judge Ulrike Schönfelder described the attack as “a scene straight out of a horror film,” as reported by Bild.
Even after the fall, the attackers continued their assault, striking the apartment owner and threatening another victim with a knife. The violence only ceased when someone shouted that a person had fallen and died, prompting the group to flee.
A crucial piece of evidence came from an emergency call placed moments before the attack. One of the victims had called the police and left the phone connected while escaping, allowing officers to listen to several minutes of the incident in real time. At one point, a perpetrator picked up the phone, gave a false name, and claimed he had dialed by accident before ending the call.
Prosecutors said the attack was the culmination of escalating disputes between individuals who knew each other. In one text message presented in court, an attacker had warned, “I swear to God, I will thrust the spear into his heart.”
The court also heard that the Iraqi victim himself had been involved in serious criminal activity shortly before his death. Two days earlier, he had allegedly taken part in the kidnapping and torture of another man in connection with a dispute over a money laundering scheme. As cited by Zeit, Judge Schönfelder said the teenager “was no innocent lamb.”
Despite the severity of the attack and the unintended consequences, only two of the defendants will serve an immediate prison sentence. The ringleader, who was 17 at the time of the crime and is now 18, received a juvenile sentence of four and a half years, while a 25-year-old Syrian national was sentenced to six years in an adult prison.
Another defendant who gave a full confession received a suspended two-year sentence. Two others were handed suspended sentences of one and a half years, while another must complete an anti-violence training program.
