MUNICH:&nbsp;An Afghan man goes on trial in Germany on Friday, accused of ramming a car into a crowd in Munich last year, killing a two-year-old girl and her mother and injuring dozens. The suspect, partially identified as Farhad N, faces two charges of murder and 44 charges of attempted murder, with prosecutors saying he acted out of a &quot;religious motivation&quot; and expected to die in the attack. Vehicle rampage&nbsp;The vehicle rampage in February 2025 was one of several deadly attacks linked to migrants, which inflamed a heated debate on immigration ahead of a general election that month. Farhad N, who was 24 at the time, is accused of deliberately steering his BMW Mini into a 1,400-strong trade union street rally in Munich on Feb. 13. The vehicle came to a halt after 23 meters (75 feet) &quot;because its front wheels lost contact with the ground due to people lying in front of and underneath the car&quot;, according to the charge sheet. A 37-year-old woman and her young daughter were both hurled through the air for 10 meters and sustained severe head injuries, from which they died several days later. &lsquo;Excessive religious motivation&rsquo;Prosecutors have said Kabul-born Farhad N, &ldquo;committed the act out of excessive religious motivation.&rdquo; &quot;He believed he was obliged to attack and kill randomly selected people in Germany in response to the suffering of Muslims in Islamic countries,&quot; they said when he was charged in August. However, he is not believed to have been part of any militant movement such as the Islamic State group. Farhad N arrived in Germany in 2016, at the height of the mass migrant influx to Europe.&nbsp; His asylum request was rejected, but he was spared deportation, found work, and remained in the country. Police said Farhad N worked in security and was heavily engaged in fitness training and bodybuilding. Knife attack&nbsp;The Munich attack came a month after <a href="https://www.pakistantv.com/article/afghan-man-on-trial-in-germany-over-deadly-knife-attack-on-toddlers" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">another Afghan man</a> had carried out a knife attack on a kindergarten group that killed two people, including a two-year-old boy, in the city of Aschaffenburg. The perpetrator was later ordered to enter psychiatric care after judges found he had acted during an acute psychotic episode. Rise of the far-rightGermany took in more than a million asylum seekers in 2015-16 at the height of Europe&#39;s migrant crisis -- an influx that has proved deeply divisive and fueled the rise of the far-right Alternative f&uuml;r Deutschland. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who took power last May, has vowed to crack down on criminal migrants and has ramped up deportations of convicts to Afghanistan. Germany in December also deported a man to Syria for the first time since that country&#39;s civil war broke out in 2011.

Europe

The suspect, partially identified as Farhad N, faces two charges of murder and 44 of attempted murder, with prosecutors saying he acted out of a 'religious motivation' and expected to die in the attack.

Afghan man goes on trial over deadly Munich car-ramming

ASCHAFFENBURG: An Afghan man accused of a deadly knife attack on a group of toddlers in Germany went on trial Thursday, nine months after an incident that inflamed a heated pre-election debate on immigration. Germany was shocked by the stabbing spree that killed a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man who tried to protect the children and left three others wounded in the southern city of Aschaffenburg. Five toddlers from a kindergarten class were in a public park, accompanied by two teachers, when the assailant attacked them with a kitchen knife.The suspect arrested at the scene of the January 22 attack has been only partially named, in line with usual practice by the German judiciary, as 28-year-old Enamullah O. History of mental illness&nbsp;He has a long history of mental illness and prosecutors said an expert assessment concluded his psychiatric state meant he was not criminally responsible. The public prosecutor&#39;s office has previously said there was no indication the suspect acted out of extremist or terrorist motivation, and they were seeking to have him permanently confined to a psychiatric facility. The trial is expected to stretch over several days of proceedings in October. The suspected attacker injured a two-year-old Syrian girl, one of the teachers as well as a 72-year-old man who had also tried to protect the children. He was arrested shortly afterwards and it soon emerged that the authorities had tried and failed in 2023 to deport him to Bulgaria -- the first EU country he had arrived in. In August 2024, he allegedly threatened a fellow resident at an accommodation for asylum seekers in the nearby town of Alzenau with a butcher&#39;s knife and caused her minor injuries. Political reactionsThe Aschaffenburg stabbings, which followed a string of other bloody attacks in Germany, provoked intense political reactions. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats who went on to become chancellor, promised a &quot;fundamental&quot; overhaul of asylum rules and strict border controls &quot;from day one&quot; if elected. About a week later, Merz, then the opposition leader, relied on support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to pass a non-binding resolution through parliament demanding stricter immigration and refugee policies. Merz&#39;s decision to rely on far-right support broke a longstanding taboo in post-World War II German politics, prompting fierce criticism and mass street protests.

The public prosecutor's office has previously said there was no indication the suspect acted out of extremist or terrorist motivation, and they were seeking to have him permanently confined to a psychiatric facility.

Articles tagged with "Afghan man"

Afghan man goes on trial over deadly Munich car-ramming

Afghan man on trial in Germany over deadly knife attack on toddlers