From BZ/dpa
It is Berlin’s most important shopping street with the Memorial Church and KaDeWe as sights. Suddenly, a car crashes into strolling passers-by. A woman dies, many people are injured. Now the case comes before the court.
Within a few seconds, the area between the Berlin Memorial Church and the luxury department store KaDeWe becomes the scene of a horrific scene: a silver-colored small car races onto the sidewalk in the middle of unsuspecting passers-by. The car only comes to a stop in the shop window of a perfumery. Many of the victims belong to a school class from Bad Arolsen in northern Hesse. Almost eight months later to the day, the trial against the alleged death driver begins on Tuesday before the Berlin Regional Court.
“With the start of the process, the events are not only happening again in the school community, but also among the people in Bad Arolsen and in the entire district,” says Jürgen van der Horst, District Administrator of the Waldeck-Frankenberg district, to which Bad Arolsen belongs. “The terrible events have shaken the people here. There is therefore still the possibility of receiving support through the existing offers.”
Murder by insidiousness
The Berlin public prosecutor’s office accuses the 29-year-old of completed “treacherous murder” and 16 attempted murders. On June 8, 2022, the German-Armenian is said to have driven a car on Kudamm (Kurfürstendamm) and Tauentzienstraße intentionally into groups of pedestrians. He also believed that fatal injuries were possible and wanted to cause them, according to the allegation.
Overview of part of the scene of the accident Photo: Reuters
The victims – that is mainly the group of students from Hesse. The 51-year-old teacher died. A colleague and eleven 10th graders were injured, some critically. A 14-year-old, who was visiting Berlin on that sunny day, was also one of those affected.
The accused has since been housed in a forensic hospital. According to the public prosecutor’s office, a preliminary psychiatric report suggests that the 29-year-old is not guilty. In a so-called security procedure, the authority is seeking accommodation in a psychiatric hospital if it is proven in the process that he was innocent at the time of the crime. Otherwise it is to be feared that he will commit further dangerous acts without treatment.
perpetrator incapacitated?
For defense attorney Mark Höfler, there is no question that his client was innocent on the day of the crime. He was ill as a young man and had no access to the tragic events of that June day. “But it is important to him and his family to make it clear how sorry they are for this terrible event,” emphasized Höfler.
The process is now also about protecting the victims as much as possible. “They should be spared a statement in court as far as possible,” said the defense attorney. “This will probably not be a contentious procedure,” emphasized Höfler. Rather, legal questions need to be clarified – for example, whether the acts should be classified as murder at all, as the public prosecutor’s office did.
According to the court, eleven victims are also involved as joint plaintiffs. For the first day of the hearing, however, the competent 22nd criminal chamber had not yet invited any witnesses, said a spokeswoman.
In addition to the injured, passers-by or helpers also reported to the authorities as affected. The central contact point knows 142 people affected from 8 different federal states as well as from 2 other EU countries and the USA, as the Senate Justice Administration announced. This is where the office is based that coordinates the offer of help for the injured, first aiders or eyewitnesses.
The class was talking about the 2016 attack
The contact point was created after the Islamist attack in 2016 on Breitscheidplatz with 13 dead and around 70 injured. Only a few meters from the place where the assassin had steered a truck into the Christmas market, the police and fire brigade had to help again.
The class at the Kaulbach School in Bad Arolsen had just been talking about the attack when, on June 8th, the car drove towards the group from behind at excessive speed. Several victims got on the hood and were swept away. According to investigations, the man at the wheel drove unabated towards a snack bar. Three other people were injured, including a pregnant woman.
Numerous rescue workers and police officers are on duty on the Tauentzien Photo: dpa
The students from Hesse have meanwhile graduated and left school. A spokeswoman for the Waldeck-Frankenberg district said that she, her parents and the school were still connected in a chat group. In order to be able to process the terrible events, there were many discussions, exchanges, psychological support and joint commemoration opportunities in the school community.