Fatal attack at Frankfurt Central Station: "I'm so sorry"

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The process begins in Frankfurt: A 41-year-old has to answer for a fatal track attack

At the end of July 2019, a fatal attack at Frankfurt Central Station triggered nationwide horror and led to debates about the security at train stations. The trial against Habte A. has now begun before the Frankfurt Regional Court. He is said to have pushed a boy and his mother in front of an ICE train. The woman could save herself, the boy died.  

At the start of the trial, A. had his lawyer read a statement: "I am so sorry, especially for the family," it said. The slain boy's father declined the apology, according to his lawyer. "My client will not accept this apology because there is no excuse for what has been done," said Ulrich Warncke in front of journalists during a pause in the proceedings.

The public prosecutor's office had not charged A. with murder, since they assume that the man was due to paranoid schizophreniais innocent. Instead, she applies for his permanent psychiatric placement. There is a very high probability that he will become violent again. She accuses him of manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and dangerous physical harm in two cases. 

Woman and child pushed onto the track "with great violence"

However, the presiding judge of the 22nd criminal chamber at the Frankfurt Regional Court did not rule out the possibility that the accused would have to answer for murder as well as two attempts at murder. That would be the case if the evidence shows that A. had consciously exploited the innocence and defenselessness of his victims and thus acted out of treachery.

An expert said in court that the accused said he could not remember the crime. He was therefore "terribly sick" when the police confronted him with it. A. had the court explained what he was supposed to have done according to the indictment, "must have happened that way, according to all the information I received." He was "very seriously ill".

A now 79-year-old, whom the accused is also said to have pushed on the platform and who was injured, testified that she had seen the 41-year-old before the crime, as he stood behind a pillar and looked out. He then suddenly pushed the mother and the child "with great force" onto the track on which the ICE was just arriving. She herself still suffers from physical limitations and is psychologically stressed, said the woman.

Escape after alleged threat from neighbor

A. comes from Eritrea. He is said to have come to Switzerland as a refugee in 2006. With the exception of a minor traffic offense, he lived there inconspicuously and was considered reliable and hardworking. In July 2019, he is said to have become violent. According to investigators, he locked his wife and three children in the apartment and threatened a neighbor with a knife. Then he fled.

In Switzerland, the man was put out to a national search. After the track attack, he said himself that he had come from Basel by train to Frankfurt a few days earlier.

The act was followed by a debate in Germany about platform safety - also because just a few days earlier a woman in North Rhine-Westphalia had been pushed in front of a train and fatally injured. The federal government, the railways and the federal police set up a joint working group to ensure more security.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) announced in September 2019 a "'More' in security", among other things through an increased presence of the Federal Police at train stations.

The victim's family recently criticized the authorities, as reported by the FAZ and HR, among others. Sufficient conclusions have still not been drawn for more safety at train stations, and there have been errors in the cooperation between the German and Swiss authorities.

At the same time, the relatives thanked them for their sympathy. They are still in psychiatric treatment: "We have not been doing well since the tragic loss of our little son and brother."

bbr / dpa / AFP