A court in Itzehoe on Wednesday sentenced a 34-year-old man to life in prison for in northern last January.
A 17-year-old and her 19-year-old boyfriend were killed in the attack, four others were wounded. The train was running from to Kiel in northern Germany; it was stopped and the man apprehended in the small town of Brokstedt.
What were the charges?
The Palestinian national Ibrahim A. faced two charges of murder and four of attempted murder, with prosecution also seeking to demonstrate the “particular severity of guilt” required in Germany for a full conviction akin to first degree murder in the US.
The prosecution had called for a life sentence, the toughest penalty German law allows for. The judge followed the prosecution’s recommendations in Wednesday’s verdict.
The defense, meanwhile, had argued that the client was not eligible for criminal prosecution because of a pyscchiatric illness and that he should be sent for specialist care and observation. If the court found otherwise, it had recommended two counts of manslaughter and four of charges akin to grievous bodily harm.
One expert witness and the judge, however, had already hinted that they did not see evidence of a full pyschosis in the defendant, despite clear signs of psychotic smyptoms.
The case took more than 10 months, involved 38 trial days and 97 witnesses or other experts.
Palestinian national, thought to be upset at looming departure from Germany
The defendant had originally denied the charges in court, before later admitting to the acts.
The 34-year-old is a Palestinian national who grew up in Gaza and who had been in Germany since 2014 but was still trying to secure residency rights.
The prosecution allege that frustration following an unsuccessful appointment at the migration office in Kiel, seeking one of the last legal avenues to stay in the country that was still open to him, led to him stealing a knife from a supermarket and then attacking people on the train with it.
The case also had political ramifications because of an apparent lack of communication between police and other relevant authorities.
The man had spent the days immediately before the attack in police custody, suspected of a separate crime in Hamburg. It later transpired that officials had noted his unruly behavior and the possibility of a psychotic illness during this period.
msh/xx (AFP, dpa)
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