After a mad drive on the A100 motorway with several people seriously injured, the Berlin Regional Court ordered the further placement of the accused in a psychiatric hospital.
The presiding judge justified the decision on Monday, saying that the man had acted out of a pathological mania. The man, who had acted while incapable of contracting guilt, continued to pose a high risk to the general public due to a serious illness.
The Iraqi is alleged to have first rammed his car into several vehicles and then hit three motorcyclists on the Berlin city motorway in August 2020.
“He intended to kill accidental victims,” the senior prosecutor’s plea said. The 31-year-old drove at breakneck speed and “deliberately hunted down motorcyclists” with his car.
Legally, these three cases are to be considered attempted murder. Some of the victims had suffered life-threatening injuries and are still suffering physically and psychologically from the consequences.
“People were meant to die”, the judgement continued. An Islamist motivation had not been established. However, the man’s madness “contained religious and Islamist elements”.
Because the 31-year-old was not willing to take medication, he could “be expected to become acutely psychotic again at any time”. The court also imposed a five-year driving ban.
With the sentence, the judges essentially followed the motions of the representative of the Attorney General’s Office. The defence lawyers had argued against a further placement in the so-called “MaĂregelvollzug”. The decision is not yet final.