The defendant assaulted Andreas Hollstein, the mayor of the western German town of Altena, with a knife on November 27, 2017 in a local doner kebab shop. Hollstein survived, but was left with a 15-centimeter (5.9-inch) wound on his neck.



The court in Hagen on Monday convicted Werner S. of inflicting grievous bodily harm and handed down a two-year sentence on probation.

The 56-year-old Altena resident entered the doner restaurant shouting "you let in 200 foreigners, but leave me hung out to dry." Hollstein was stabbed in the neck, but the restaurant's owners were able to fight the assailant off. He confessed to attacking the mayor, but said he only wanted to scare, but not seriously harm him.

Last week, the court said there was no intent to kill, meaning the suspect was not tried for attempted murder but grievous bodily harm.

In May 2017, Altena won the first-ever National Prize for Integration. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the jury praised Altena for taking in more refugees than it had to at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, and for helping refugees find their feet in the German town with a dedicated program.

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Editor's note: Deutsche Welle follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

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