crime
Start of process: deadly knife attack in Zug near Brokstedt
Forensics and police officers are at the crime scene. photo
© Jonas Walzberg/dpa
A young couple dies in a knife attack on a train near Brokstedt, the act causes nationwide horror. Now the probable lengthy trial for murder and attempted murder begins.
The trial of the deadly Knife attack on a regional train in Brokstedt, Schleswig-Holstein.
The Palestinian Ibrahim A. has to answer before the Itzehoe district court for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder. The public prosecutor accuses the 34-year-old of stabbing a 17-year-old and her boyfriend, who is two years older, on January 25 near Brokstedt train station. Two other women and two men suffered serious injuries.
The prosecution is convinced that Ibrahim A. acted out of base motives and insidiousness. A woman injured in the deadly knife attack later took her own life. Around 40 days of negotiations are planned for the process.
accused in custody
The hearing of evidence will show whether all witnesses are heard by the court, said the spokeswoman for the regional court, Frederike Milhoffer. The hearing of evidence is scheduled to begin on July 17. The reading of the indictment is planned for the first day of the hearing. A statement from the defense or the defendant may follow.
Defender Björn Seelbach did not comment on the process in advance. He had previously said his client did not deny the crime. According to Milhoffer, the culpability of the accused, who had already made a criminal appearance, is being examined with the help of an expert. The accused is currently in custody. There he was noticed several times for aggressive behavior and is considered a difficult prisoner.
“From the point of view of the prosecution, the actions of the accused, who is said to have stolen the knife in a supermarket, resulted from annoyance at his personal situation, which has not been clarified for many reasons,” said senior public prosecutor Peter Müller-Rakow after the indictment was announced. “We assume culpability,” said the lawyer before the trial began.
Already arrested for another crime
The man had been released from custody just a few days before the fatal knife attack, which he had served in Hamburg for another crime. During that time, he had seen 16 times with a psychiatrist about mental health issues.
The Ibrahim A. case also concerned several state parliaments because there had been deficiencies in the exchange of important information between authorities in Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, where Ibrahim A. lived and also committed crimes. A few months before his release from Hamburg prison, the alleged murderer is said to have compared himself to the assassin from Berlin’s Breitscheidplatz, Anis Amri.