On November 6, 2021, a 27-year-old attacked four men with a knife on an ICE train between Regensburg and Nuremberg. Several of them were seriously injured. Now the process before the Munich Higher Regional Court begins. The accused is charged with attempted murder, among other things.
Almost a year after the bloody knife attack on travelers in an ICE train in Bavaria, the trial against the alleged perpetrator began before the Munich Higher Regional Court. The federal prosecutor accuses the accused Abdalrahman A., an "ethnic Palestinian" who grew up in Syria, of attempted insidious murder, bodily harm and property damage.
On November 6, 2021, the then 27-year-old is said to have suddenly attacked four men on the long-distance train from Passau to Hamburg between Regensburg and Nuremberg and seriously injured several of them. He is said to have approached a seated passenger from behind and stabbed him eight times in the head, neck and chest area. He took advantage of the fact that the man had his eyes closed. Then he gave another passenger two stitches in the head with great force. A. inflicted cut injuries on a third man who wanted to come to the rescue. He then stabbed a fourth passenger in the neighboring car eight times in the skull and at least twice in the chest and abdomen. The first, second and fourth victims suffered potentially life-threatening injuries.
In December, the accused allegedly slapped a male nurse in the face at a clinic where he was being held at the time. At the beginning of January, he is also said to have banged a window against the wall in his isolation cell in the clinic until the glass shattered and metal bars came loose from the window. He is said to have hit the cell door with one of these bars.
At the reading of the indictment, federal prosecutor Silke Ritzert said the accused had "radical Islamist convictions". With the indiscriminate killing of non-Muslims, he wanted to make a contribution to global jihad - he wanted to put this into practice with the knife attack on the ICE.
From the point of view of the defense, however, a central question is whether the man is really a jihadist - and how his mental state at the time of the crime should be assessed. There are several reports on this, some of which contradict each other massively in terms of content, one of the defense attorneys had already explained before the trial began. Therefore, four psychiatric experts appeared at the start of the trial.
The defendant himself initially did not comment on the allegations. The reading of the indictment was initially delayed because the accused, who is currently being treated with psychotropic drugs, complained of fatigue and therefore had to be examined. However, the experts declared him fit to stand trial. The 6th Criminal Senate of the Higher Regional Court has initially scheduled 24 days of hearings until December 23, 2022.
