Olaf Scholz said he will deport serious criminals back to Syria and Afghanistan in response to an Islamic extremist facing charges for murdering a police officer in Mannheim last week.

In an address to the Bundestag, the German chancellor vowed to change German deportation rules so that it would be permitted to deport foreign criminals even if they face human rights abuses upon their return.

“Such criminals should be deported, even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan,” Mr Scholz said. “In such cases, Germany’s security interests outweigh the interests of the protection of the perpetrator.”

He also warned that “anyone who glorifies terrorism is going against all of our values” and would face the same fate, in a significant hardening of the German government’s stance on crime and migration.

Germany in 2021 banned the deportation of Afghans in response to the Taliban seizing power, while a ban on sending Syrians back into the clutches of the Assad regime was allowed to expire earlier that year.

However, German constitutional law and its commitment to the Geneva refugee convention can prevent courts from deporting criminals who are at risk of torture, death or inhumane treatment in their country of origin.

This means Mr Scholz’s reforms, which he announced ahead of the European parliament elections, could potentially run into legal issues once the rules are changed.

Also on Thursday it was reported that Mr Scholz has personally forbidden his defence minister, Boris Pistorius, from publicly disclosing details of his plan to introduce national service in Germany as part of efforts to strengthen the Bundeswehr, the German army.

According to Stern magazine, sources said Mr Scholz does not want conscription to become a campaigning issue as it could alienate voters from his centre-Left SPD party.

Mr Scholz made the announcement in response to a major attack last week in Mannheim, southern Germany, in which an Afghan extremist allegedly murdered a police officer and injured a far-Right anti-Islam activist.

According to German authorities the suspect, 25-year-old Sulaiman Ataee, mounted the attack in an attempt to silence critics of Islam. He is facing one charge of murder and one of attempted murder, among other assault charges.

German media reports say that Ataee came from Afghanistan a decade ago with his brother as a child refugee. He was initially well integrated in German society, learned the language to an advanced level and married a German woman, with whom he has two young children.

He was radicalised more recently, possibly after falling in with a group of extremists in the Mannheim area, the German tabloid Bild suggested this week.