The trial of a 19-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who attacked a Ukrainian woman with a box cutter in broad daylight began this week in Frankfurt, with the attacker unlikely to face prison time due to mental health issues.
In June 2024, the woman, a 42-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had fled the war in March 2022, was enjoying her lunch break on a park bench near Frankfurt’s Ostbahnhof when the attacker suddenly assaulted her. The man, identified as Mohammad Zaman A., stabbed her multiple times in the head and neck before fleeing.
Passers-by, alerted by her screams, rushed to her aid, prompting the attacker to hide behind a tree nearby, where he was arrested by police about an hour later.
Remix News reported on the attack at the time.
As reported by FAZ, the victim and the attacker had never met, and there was no apparent motive — no robbery, argument, or prior interaction. Initially, investigators expressed concern the incident could have been linked to the terror attack in Mannheim 10 days earlier when a police officer was stabbed to death by an Afghan migrant, but later concluded that the assailant had acted due to mental illness.
Prosecutors allege that the attacker, now 20, suffers from schizophrenia, compounded by severe mood disorders, paranoia, and possible delusions. The man, originally housed in a refugee shelter about an hour’s drive away in Ladenburg, had a history of substance abuse, including hashish and ecstasy-like tablets, which he consumed regularly for six to seven years.
According to his defense, he was under the influence of these drugs at the time of the crime and had found the knife on the street a few days before the attack.
The Afghan national is charged with attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. However, because he was reportedly in a state of diminished responsibility during the assault, the proceedings are being handled differently and he is unlikely to serve any time in prison. Instead, he is likely to be permanently committed to a psychiatric institution. Prosecutors argue that he poses an ongoing danger to the public.
On the first day of the trial, the defendant fully confessed to the crime. Since November, he has been held in a forensic psychiatric unit where he receives compulsory medication, reportedly leading to some improvement in his mental state. He remembers attacking the woman but cannot explain why, claiming only that he was experiencing “terrible pain in his left knee” before the incident.
The victim, deeply traumatized, has since returned to Ukraine, feeling unsafe in Germany. Her legal representative stated that she remains on antidepressants and is unable to testify in person.
Instead, the court played a recording of her police interview, where she recounted sensing someone behind her and initially thinking it was a pickpocket. “He wanted to kill me,” she said.
The stabbing attack followed a wave of rapes and assaults directed against Ukrainian refugees, who, compared to other migrant groups from North Africa and the Middle East, have far lower crime rates.
Notably, a Ukrainian refugee teen basketball player was stabbed to death by a gang of Arabs “just for being Ukrainian” last year.
In 2022, a Jordanian migrant stabbed a 21-year-old Ukrainian refugee woman and then went on to calmly eat bratwurst and French fries after the attack.