Despite multiple witnesses hearing the Somali man shout “Allahu Akbar” before the attack, German authorities said there was no Islamist motive behind the murders.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
A Somali man who killed three women while shouting “Allahu Akbar” during a knife-wielding rampage was found to be not responsible for his crimes by a German court.
In June 2021, Abdirahman Jibril A., whose last name is being withheld from media publication in line with German privacy laws, stole a knife from a department store in downtown Wurzburg and began stabbing people in an unprovoked attack.
In addition to stabbing to death three women in the store, he injured another five women, along with a child, on the street outside.
But despite multiple witnesses hearing the man shout “Allahu Akbar” before the attack, German authorities said there was no Islamist motive behind the murders.
Because the man’s cell phone and computer did not contain extremist material, the police said there was no basis to call the event a terror attack, reported German daily Exxpress.
Since the slayings, Mr. A. has been held in a psychiatric hospital in Bavaria.
Although doctors told the court that he is benefiting from a cocktail of medications that has restored him to sanity just three months after the incident, they said the man could not be held legally responsible for his actions on the day of the killings.
A German court agreed, determining the man to be not guilty of the attack due to his insanity at the time.
Hans-Jochen Schrepfer, Mr. A.’s attorney, described his client as remorseful for the attack. He is “very reflective,” about what occurred, Schrepfer told Exxpress.
“He expressed his regret for the fate of his victims and explained his…point of view” to investigators who recently spoke to him, Schrepfer said.
In April 2021, a French court refused to prosecute a Muslim migrant who murdered his neighbor, an elderly Jewish woman, arguing that he was not responsible for the slaying because he had smoked marijuana on the day of the killing.