Father of 21-year-old suspected of Berlin massacre: ISIS manipulated his mind, our family is Shiite and opposes this ideology

The father of Abdul Ballout, the 21-year-old suspected of carrying out the tragic attack during Berlin’s Pride Parade, has claimed that his son fell prey to indoctrination by the Islamic State, stressing that his “mind was taken” to embrace this extremist doctrine.

In a conversation with Der Spiegel magazine, the 64-year-old who lives in Lebanon recounted a brief phone call with the young man moments before the serious incident. He recalled his son’s words: “He told me he missed me and wished he could be here with us in Lebanon.”

The father dismissed any family connection to Islamist fundamentalism, clarifying that they belong to the Shiite faith and do not share the same views as the terrorist organization. According to him, the young man had started to show sympathy for the Sunni sect, an orientation completely alien to their religious tradition.

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office has stated that the 21-year-old had long been involved in radical circles and had made several attempts to be recruited by ISIS. In 2025, he was arrested in Lebanon and in May 2026, the Berlin courts sentenced him to one year and ten months in prison for planning a serious act of violence against the state. After his release, supervision measures were imposed on him and participation in a deradicalization program was planned.

Preliminary investigations show that Ballout had rented the white van used to hit participants in the Tiergarten park, in the heart of the German capital. Inside the vehicle, law enforcement forces discovered a mobile phone traced to his name.

After the SUV crashed into a tree, he allegedly attacked several bystanders with a machete and fled the crime scene. Later, officers located him in a community garden in the Spandau district, where he was shot dead, as according to the blue uniforms, he approached them aggressively during the intervention.

Meanwhile, law enforcement released an Iranian national who had initially been taken into custody as a person with possible links to the incident. Investigators said the evidence did not implicate him and are now focusing on determining whether the perpetrator acted alone or was assisted by accomplices.