13 months after a man’s deadly knife attack on unsuspecting passers-by in Würzburg, the regional court could pronounce the verdict this Tuesday. According to two independent reports, the accused is mentally ill and was therefore not responsible for the crime on June 25, 2021, in which three women died.
If the Würzburg district court follows the requests of the Munich public prosecutor’s office and representatives of the private accessory prosecutors, the perpetrator could be accommodated in a psychiatric ward for an unlimited period of time. As long as the man’s illness, paranoid schizophrenia, persists and he is classified as dangerous, release is ruled out.
Before the verdict, the defense will first have a plea on Tuesday. After a break in consultation, the verdict could follow. For reasons of space, the hearing will not take place in the justice center but in an event hall in Estenfeld near Würzburg.
The accused Somali, around 30 years old – the authorities do not know his exact age – have had to answer for the security proceedings since April. It has been proven that he killed three unknown women with a knife in downtown Würzburg. There were also four seriously injured women. An 11-year-old girl and a 16-year-old were also seriously injured. There were also three minor injuries. A police officer who was attacked was not injured.
“The accused chose the injured party arbitrarily,” senior public prosecutor Judith Henkel said in her final statement on Monday. The Somali acted insidiously and out of hatred for Germany, where he was treated unfairly and felt persecuted by the secret service. Voices in his head would have encouraged the man to act. “It was his intention to kill as many people as possible (…).” There were no indications of a political motive or misogyny.
