13 months after the fatal knife attack by a man on unsuspecting passers-by in Würzburg, the district court in Würzburg sent a mentally ill man to a psychiatric ward for an indefinite period. That said the presiding judge, Thomas Schuster, on Tuesday at the verdict. The regional court thus followed the requests of the Munich public prosecutor’s office and representatives of the private accessory prosecutors. The accused Somali, around 30 – the authorities do not know his exact age – have had to answer for the security proceedings since April. The Attorney General accuses the fugitive of three counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder, four counts of attempted manslaughter and dangerous, serious and intentional bodily harm.
It has been proven that he killed three unknown women with a knife in downtown Würzburg. There were also four seriously injured women. An 11-year-old girl and a 16-year-old were also seriously injured. There were also three minor injuries. A police officer who was attacked was not injured.
According to two independent reports, the accused is mentally ill and was therefore not responsible for the crime. As long as the man’s illness, paranoid schizophrenia, persists and he is classified as dangerous, release is ruled out.
“The accused chose the victims arbitrarily,” senior prosecutor Judith Henkel said in her final statement on Monday. The Somali acted insidiously and out of hatred for Germany, where he was treated unfairly and felt persecuted by the secret service. Voices in his head would have encouraged the man to act. “His intention was to kill as many people as possible (…).” There were no indications of a political motive or misogyny.