In January 2023, Ibrahim A. attacked passengers on a regional train near Brokstedt with a kitchen knife, two people died and four were injured. Now the Itzehoe regional court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
In the trial surrounding the fatal knife attack on a regional train near Brokstedt in Schleswig-Holstein, the Itzehoe regional court sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment for murder and attempted murder. The chamber considered it proven that the 34-year-old stabbed two people and seriously injured four on a regional train in January 2023.
In addition, the Grand Criminal Chamber determined the seriousness of the guilt, which means that a suspension of the sentence after 15 years is practically impossible. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
Passengers attacked with kitchen knife
On the afternoon of January 25, 2023, Ibrahim A. pulled out a kitchen knife on the regional train traveling from Kiel to Hamburg and suddenly attacked passengers with it. A 17-year-old and her 19-year-old boyfriend died. Four other passengers were injured, some seriously. The perpetrator was eventually overpowered by passengers.
Regarding the motive, the court said that the defendant had felt that he had been treated unfairly for a long time, most recently during official visits on the day of the crime. He had been harboring the idea of wanting to kill several people out of frustration for a long time.
Released from custody a few days before the crime
The native Palestinian came to Germany in 2014. Although his asylum application was rejected, A. was granted subsidiary protection.
He initially lived in North Rhine-Westphalia, but was registered in Kiel from July to November 2021. He was banned from a shared accommodation for refugees because he was said to have threatened fellow residents. He then lived in Hamburg, where he was convicted of grievous bodily harm and was in custody until shortly before the crime.
He was released from prison on January 19th and traveled to Kiel on January 25th, 2023 to have his residence permit extended, but without success. He is said to have stolen the knife in a supermarket in Kiel, with which he stabbed the passengers on the regional train shortly afterwards.
Court follows psychiatric Appraise
For a long time, the trial was about the man’s guilt. The Grand Criminal Chamber now followed the report of psychiatrist Arno Deister. The professor had diagnosed the defendant with psychotic symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but not psychosis. “I don’t see any impairment of the ability to understand,” he said. There is also no abolition of the ability to control.
With its verdict, the court followed the prosecution’s demand for punishment. Defense attorney Björn Seelbach, on the other hand, argued for his client to be placed in forensic psychiatry. The trial lasted more than ten months and the court heard almost 100 witnesses and experts.