Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof murder

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On 29 July 2019, a man murdered an eight-year-old boy in Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, Germany. [1] [2]

Contents

Attack

On 29 July 2019, Habte Araya deliberately pushed an eight-year-old boy, Leo, and his mother, onto railway tracks. [1] [2] This happened on platform 7 of Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, the main train station in Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse, as an Intercity Express passenger train entered the station. [1] [2] The mother rolled herself off the tracks, avoiding the train; Leo was killed instantly when he was hit by the same train. [1] [2] Araya also tried to push a woman in her late seventies onto the tracks. [1] [2] All three victims were strangers to Araya, [1] who was chased and apprehended by onlookers. [1] [2]

Perpetrator

At the time he carried out the attack, Araya was a 40 year-old married father-of-three from Eritrea. [1] [2] He was a refugee living in Switzerland who had been granted asylum there in 2009. [1] He was on the run from Swiss police, who sought him for the false imprisonment of his wife and their three children earlier in July 2019. [1]

Reaction

The attack was widely covered by Germany's media and also reported by the media in some other countries. [1] It triggered a debate about immigration and crime, along with calls for increased security at train stations and Germany's international borders. [1] [2]

Araya was tried in August 2020, with the proceedings to decide whether it was manslaughter or murder. [1] [2] On 28 August, the attack was ruled to be murder and attempted murder. [2] On the same day, he was sentenced to be detained for life; due to his acute paranoid schizophrenia, he was ruled not criminally responsible and sent to a psychiatric hospital. [2]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Germany train incident: Eritrean on trial for boy's Frankfurt death
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Frankfurt rail attack; Boy's killer given life in psychiatric ward