Germany proposes minimum one-year prison for severe knife attacks

The German federal cabinet is set to debate a comprehensive ten-point strategy targeting Islamist terrorism, with a key focus on tightening criminal penalties for knife and other dangerous-tool attacks. Under the draft, any attacker who endangers a victim's life or inflicts severe injury with such weapons would face a minimum of one year behind bars, a measure that Dobrindt says is motive-agnostic. The plan also seeks to revise probation decisions for sentences of six months or more, requiring courts to weigh public safety more heavily.

Justice Minister Hubig wants courts to explicitly justify the use of juvenile law when dealing with minors, rejecting the notion of a lenient approach. Additional provisions would allow state authorities temporary access to telecom data when there are indications of ongoing crimes, mandate the sharing of radicalisation warnings with courts, and expand the use of electronic monitoring and preventive detention, pending further legislative changes at the state level.