Hamburg supermarket attacker gets life in prison

March 1 (UPI) -- A Palestinian man convicted in the killing of one person and injuring of six others during a supermarket attack in Hamburg, Germany, last year was sentenced to life in prison.

Ahmad Alhaw, 27, a man who police said had a "destabilized personality" and "Islamic extremist motivations," entered a supermarket with a knife in July and killed a 50-year-old man and injured six others in and around the store. A group of German-Turkish men subdued Alhaw and held him down in the street nearby.

The Hamburg court stressed the seriousness of the attack, indicating Alhaw is unlikely to qualify for early release after the standard 15 years.

Alhaw pledged support for the militant Islamic State, but police haven't presented any evidence that the international terrorist organization aided in the plot. That meant Alhaw did not face terrorism charges.

The man came to Germany in 2015 after being rejected for asylum in Norway, Sweden and Spain. He similarly applied for asylum in Germany and officials there rejected his application. German authorities tried to deport Alhaw, but the process stalled over his lack of official identification.

More than a million migrants and refugees have entered Germany since 2015, leading to political clashes over their status. German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided in October to install an annual limit on the number of refugees entering her country. The decision came after ultra-conservative parties gained seats in German parliamentary elections.

Andreas Hollstein, the mayor of Altena and a pro-refugee advocate, was stabbed at a restaurant in November in a politically motivated attack, officials said.