BGH confirms imprisonment for Islamist knife attack on ICE train
The conviction of a man for an Islamist-motivated knife attack in an ICE train in Bavaria to a prison sentence of 14 years is legally binding. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe announced that the review of the Munich Higher Regional Court's verdict for multiple attempted murders, among other things, had not revealed any legal errors. The third criminal senate rejected the defendant's appeal.
On November 6, 2021, the then 27-year-old had attacked four unsuspecting passengers with a knife on an ICE train on the journey from Passau to Nuremberg. Three of the men were seriously injured and survived the attack thanks to rapid medical assistance.
The federal prosecutor's office had assumed that the attack had a radical Islamist background and had demanded a life sentence. The victims' lawyers, who appeared as joint plaintiffs in the trial, agreed with the demand.
Expert witness: mental illness only feigned
The defense, on the other hand, saw the Palestinian national who grew up in Syria as a paranoid schizophrenic incapable of guilt. She pleaded for an acquittal and placement in a psychiatric hospital. Her client had felt persecuted and under surveillance.
However, the Higher Regional Court found that the man, who had been living in Germany since 2014, was fully capable of culpability when he committed the crime. "The court heard several psychiatric experts on this question, who came to the conclusion that the defendant was merely faking a mental illness in order to avoid punishment," explained the Federal Court of Justice in its statement.
According to the findings of the Munich State Security Senate, the Muslim defendant had become extremely radicalized in his faith from 2017 onwards and adhered to an Islamist-Salafist ideology, as the BGH announced. He had rejected the secular legal and social order of the Federal Republic of Germany and wanted to participate in the so-called jihad, the holy war against "infidels", as a lone perpetrator by committing an act of terrorist violence in Germany. The court assumed that the murder was motivated by base motives and malice aforethought.
- The court proceedings revealed that the defendant's claim of a mental illness was merely a strategy to evade punishment, as indicated by various psychiatric experts.
- The attack on the ICE train, which resulted in multiple attempted murders and severe injuries, was linked to the defendant's radicalization and extreme interpretations of his religious beliefs.
- The sentence for the Islamist-motivated knife attack on an ICE train was upheld after a review process, ensuring the legal justice system's consistent handling of such high-profile and sensitive criminal cases.
Source: www.dpa.com
