The man who attacked four people with a knife on the ICE Passau-Hamburg in November could be guilty. A spokesman for the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday that an expert had come to the preliminary conclusion in a brief report that the conditions for incapacity or limited criminal responsibility were not met. Since January 19, he has therefore no longer been in a psychiatric clinic, but is in custody.
In his first assessment shortly after the crime on November 6, another expert assumed that his criminal responsibility was lifted at the time of the crime. The 27-year-old told him that he felt threatened by the first victim and committed the other acts as if in a dream. Police officers had also “noticed psychological abnormalities. He was then accommodated in the Regensburg district hospital.
The man, who comes from Syria, injured four men between the ages of 26 and 60, some seriously with a knife, on the train that was traveling between Regensburg and Nuremberg. The investigators do not rule out an Islamist background. For example, they found propaganda videos from the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) on him. However, it remains unclear whether an extremist motivation actually played a role. The more detailed, final report, which is intended to answer the question of criminal responsibility, is still pending. The man is accused of, among other things, attempted murder in two cases, attempted manslaughter and intentional bodily harm.