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Defendant in the courtroom: "I would like to apologize to the extreme"
Photo: THOMAS FREY / AFP
A 33-year-old man is said to have hit cars with a truck: In the process of an allegedly deliberately caused accident, the defendant apologized.
The trigger was his drug consumption, as the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reports.
"If the drugs hadn't been involved, that wouldn't have happened," said the 33-year-old in the Limburg district court on Friday.
He is charged with attempted murder and dangerous physical harm.
He was arrested at the scene of the crime and has been in custody ever since.
According to the indictment, the man first pulled a driver out of his truck on October 7, 2019 and then sat behind the wheel himself.
Shortly thereafter, at an intersection at 40 km / h, he is said to have deliberately hit cars that were in front of him at a traffic light.
Ten vehicles were pushed onto each other, 18 people were injured.
He had smoked a joint shortly before the crime, the marijuana was "unusually strong".
He has few memories of the act itself.
It was the first time that the 33-year-old commented on the allegations;
He hadn't said anything about this during the investigation.
According to his account, he was initially with family members in Limburg on October 7th.
He smoked a joint there, he said.
Shortly afterwards, "my blood boiled up and my head exploded".
(Read an eyewitness account here.)
The man came to Germany from Syria five years ago and committed a criminal offense shortly afterwards.
On the first day of the trial, witnesses reported that the defendant appeared confused and shaken shortly after the crime.
He said he kept walking around the street shouting "Allah" and attacked a woman who wanted to help him.
He kneeled down in front of another woman, held onto her clothes and prayed.
His eyes were glassy, apparently he was in a state of shock.
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kha / dpa