The public prosecutor’s office has requested permanent placement in a psychiatric hospital for attempted murder for a 28-year-old who is said to have pushed a Syrian off the famous Stone Bridge in Regensburg. The public prosecutor’s office assumes that “the accused acted out of xenophobic sentiments,” the authority announced on Thursday. It also accuses the innocent defendant of using the symbols of unconstitutional organizations. The public prosecutor’s office submitted a corresponding application to the Regensburg regional court. The court must now decide on admission to the main hearing and hearing dates.
The 20-year-old Syrian was seriously injured in the almost seven-meter fall on October 13 last year and is still struggling with the psychological consequences of the attack. He suffered a traumatic brain injury in the fall, but his life was not in danger. The young Syrian had been sitting on the parapet of the Stone Bridge and talking on the phone when – according to previous investigations – the accused allegedly pushed him off the bridge completely unexpectedly. After the crime, the accused is said to have continued to stroll across the bridge unimpressed and to have given the Nazi salute to a plainclothes police officer who happened to be there, the public prosecutor’s office said.
In recent months, the investigations by the criminal police and public prosecutor’s office in Regensburg have focused primarily on “whether the crime may have had a xenophobic motive,” as the public prosecutor’s office also announced. For this purpose, the accused’s cell phone data was examined, among other things. This provided various indications of National Socialist ideas. Based, among other things, on the basis of witness statements and the course of the crime, further evidence of a “possibly xenophobic motive” emerged.
The public prosecutor’s office accuses the 28-year-old of attempting to murder the Syrian insidiously and for base motives. During the investigation, the accused made statements to both a police officer and a psychiatric expert. He told both of them that he had committed the crime because he thought that the 20-year-old, whom he did not know, was a drug dealer. However, the investigation did not reveal any evidence of criminal behavior on the part of the Syrian.
A forensic psychiatric expert report came to the conclusion that the accused was experiencing a manic episode with psychotic symptoms during the crime and was therefore incompetent. However, due to his condition, the accused is still at risk of committing serious crimes in the future. The public prosecutor’s office therefore requested that the accused be placed in a psychiatric hospital. In such cases there is no indictment, but rather an application and at the end of such a trial there is no conviction.