The Karlsruhe district court has already dealt with this case: Ahmad A (27) is said to have pushed an unsuspecting victim in front of a freight train out of frustration at his life. Now a second chamber has made another decision.
Karlsruhe – It is hard to imagine how carpenter Werner G. (54) survived this act: The severely disabled man squeezed himself into a gap only 90 centimeters wide when an almost 600 meter long freight train rushed past him at a speed of 90 km/h.
Ahmas A. pushed him onto the tracks and prevented him from climbing up with kicks and punches! He acted with the intention of killing and for base motives, as the presiding judge at the Karlsruhe district court emphasized on Monday.
The man wanted to reduce frustration and aggression about his life. “There is no other obvious reason for this act.” The verdict: ten years imprisonment for attempted murder in combination with dangerous bodily harm.
It is the second time that the court is dealing with the incident from summer 2020 at the train station in Waghäusel between Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. This time, a different chamber has to decide, because the accused and his brother Mahmoud A. (24) had successfully appealed to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH).
The highest criminal judges in Germany found that the criminal responsibility of the main perpetrator had not been properly assessed. For example, the district court did not adequately examine paranoid schizophrenia. The BGH ordered a new hearing.
But even in the second trial, the court did not deviate from the verdict of its colleagues in the case of the main defendant. “He was fully culpable,” said the presiding judge. There are no indications of psychoses triggered by drugs or otherwise. Described hallucinations did not match the representations of everyone who had anything to do with the man. At best, they would have described him as annoyed, but by no means as mentally ill.
►That fits the motive that both chambers assumed: the brothers had fled from Syria to Germany and wanted to build a new life here. The older man in particular was ambitious and intelligent, the judge said. But among other things, the recognition of qualifications was delayed. In the end, a “bitter, tense, frustrated mood remained”.
The victim was “very, very, very lucky” to survive. The then 54-year-old would only have had to be a little stronger or make a wrong move when the train passed, and the events would have ended very differently, the judge made clear.
The man suffered broken bones, skin was tearing off, he caught a multi-resistant germ in the hospital, and a tissue transplant was necessary. He still takes painkillers today, the judge said. Above all, the man still suffers from nightmares and anxiety.
When the summons to the process came, he collapsed and had to go to the psychiatric ward. It is not foreseeable whether his situation will ever improve. The court blamed the 27-year-old for these lengthy consequences.
The situation was different for the younger brother: the 24-year-old suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the judge said. The man couldn’t intervene. While he received a suspended sentence in the first judgement, the court has now reduced this to a fine of 120 daily rates of ten euros.
Appeals can also be lodged against this judgment. The brothers’ lawyers initially gave no information on Monday as to whether they intend to do so.
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