At the request of his defense attorney, the knife murderer von Brokstedt was released from custody a few days before the bloody crime. Lawyer Seelbach describes how hastily this happened. He does not know what motive drove his client, but he rules out terrorism or religion.
The defense attorney for the knife attacker from Brokstedt in Schleswig-Holstein has ruled out a terrorist motive for his client. “I am sure that he has no political, religious or terrorist motive,” said lawyer Björn Seelbach. His client did not provide any information about the allegations. The district court issued an arrest warrant for two counts of murder and four counts of attempted manslaughter. At the appointment on Thursday, he was represented by a colleague.
Seelbach explained that he had already represented Ibrahim A. in the Bonn area, where the Palestinian lived from 2015 to 2020, in minor criminal proceedings for bodily harm, property damage, shoplifting and traffic offenses. At that time and later during the pre-trial detention in Hamburg, no extremist tendencies were noticed in his client. The defender considers it possible that the 33-year-old was angry and beside himself when he did it on the regional train. He could also be mentally ill or have been under the influence of drugs.
After his arrest on January 20, 2022, his client made a “cold” drug withdrawal in custody. He was mistakenly treated with methadone. When he was sentenced by the District Court of Hamburg-St. Georg brought in a sentence reduction for dangerous bodily harm and theft. Before his release, A. sought therapy to strengthen his abstinence from drugs. That was rejected, said the defense attorney.
He appealed against the verdict because his client was of the opinion that he had defended himself in self-defense in front of a drug facility in Hamburg with a knife. Last December, as a lawyer, he drew the district court’s attention to the fact that the time in custody would soon reach the length of the sentence imposed. However, the cancellation of the arrest warrant on January 19 came as a surprise to him because he first wanted to talk to his client about help after his release. “I tried to reach him, but he was immediately thrown out the door,” said Seelbach. His client has no relatives in Germany.
The deadly knife attack and the way the authorities dealt with it will not only have legal, but also parliamentary repercussions. The judiciary committee of the Hamburg Parliament will deal with the case in the coming week. The legal committee of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament is to meet in Düsseldorf for a special session.
