Iraqi migrant crashes his car into motorbikes in Berlin, injures several people

BERLIN. After an attack on several vehicles on a Berlin autobahn on Tuesday evening, the public prosecutor identified a possible Islamist motive. "We have clues that lead into the Islamist milieu," said the spokesman for the Berlin public prosecutor, Martin Steltner, on Wednesday. The accused had formally "hunted motorcyclists".

The 30-year-old Iraqi Sarmad A. had rammed two motorcyclists on the A100 with his black Opel Astra and caused accidents in a targeted manner, reports the dpa news agency and the BZ. Six people were injured, three of them seriously. Then he stopped his car, got out and shouted “Allahu akbar”. "The processes cannot be reconciled with a random accident," said the police.

Sarmad A. was born in Baghdad and currently has a tolerance status. However, there is also an indication "from the past that the man has psychological problems". According to Tagesspiegel, the man lived in a migrant shelter until October 2019, during which time he had been noticed with assault crimes. Once he rolled out a prayer rug because of him, as is now the case with a police operation. In 2018 he was briefly treated in a psychiatric ward. According to the report, he also had contact with an Islamist who was classified as a threat. People are considered to be at risk if the security authorities trust them to attack at any time.

Iraqi threatened: Nobody will come closer, otherwise everyone will die
Thereupon the alleged perpetrator is said to have placed a metal box on the roof of the car and threatened that no one should approach him, otherwise everyone would die. According to the report, forensic technicians opened the box with a high pressure water jet. There were only tools in it. Another box in the trunk had been X-rayed. The police did not find any traces of explosives, as it was initially reported, in the car.


State security determined
The state security responsible for politically motivated acts has taken over the investigation, according to AFP. It will also be checked whether the Iraqi is mentally disturbed. Prosecutor General Margarete Koppers will inform the legal committee in the Berlin House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon, said a spokesman for the judiciary.

Because of the investigations, the section of motorway near the city center was completely closed for hours. Parts of the street were still tight on Wednesday morning.

Source: Junge Freiheit