Attacker of Jewish student in Berlin gets revised sentence on appeal

More than two years after a brutal attack on a Jewish university student in Berlin, the first ruling's appeal resulted on Monday in a somewhat lighter sentence and a finding that the attack did not have an anti-Semitic motive.

The Berlin Regional Court sentenced the 25-year-old to two and a half years’ imprisonment for causing grievous bodily harm in the attack on Lahav Shapira. However, the court did not find “that the offence had an anti-Semitic motive,” presiding judge Sinja Stachrowski said.

In the first instance, the Tiergarten Local Court had imposed a three-year prison sentence in April 2025. The lower court had ruled that it was a case of “anti-Semitic violence.”

The defendant had appealed against the verdict. The 25-year-old – a former fellow student of Shapira’s – had confessed to the violent act. However, he denied any anti-Semitic motivation.

The perpetrator, a former teacher training student at Free University in the German capital, and the victim had met by chance in a bar in Berlin-Mitte on February 2, 2024 – four months after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

When Shapira left the bar, the 25-year-old followed him. According to the court, he spontaneously knocked the student – now 33 – to the ground and then kicked him in the head. The victim suffered facial fractures and a brain haemorrhage.

In his closing statement shortly before the verdict, the defendant personally apologized to Shapira, who was a joint plaintiff in the trial. “I am very sorry,” said the 25-year-old. He stated that he had entered therapy and could assure the court “that something like this will never happen again.”

In the appeal hearing, the prosecution had sought a prison sentence of two years and 11 months. The defence requested a suspended sentence but did not submit a specific application. The verdict is not yet final, as yet another appeal is possible.