A German judicial panel in Munich issued a life prison sentence Thursday to an Afghan citizen responsible for a vehicle-ramming rampage during a demonstration last year that claimed the lives of a toddler and her mother while leaving scores wounded, AFP reported.
The regional court found the 25-year-old defendant, named under local privacy guidelines as Farhad N., guilty on two counts of murder, 23 counts of attempted murder, and 22 counts of causing bodily harm, 19 of which were categorized as serious.
Magistrates determined that the offender’s actions bore a “particular gravity of guilt” – a legal determination that significantly limits the possibility of the convict securing early release from custody.
The vehicular assault took place immediately prior to the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of global defense and political figures, and was among a series of violent incidents involving foreign nationals that intensified political debates over asylum policies and domestic security in the lead-up to last year’s federal election.
During the incident, Farhad N. maneuvered a Mini Cooper around a stationary police vehicle before accelerating straight into a crowd of 1,400 union marchers.
The magistrate noted that additional casualties were avoided solely because the density of people hit by the vehicle gradually slowed and brought the car to a halt. Farhad N. maintained an emotionless demeanor as the judgment was delivered, according to AFP.
State prosecutors presented evidence during the trial indicating that Farhad N. was driven by “religious motivation” and shouted “Allahu akbar” following the rampage. However, investigators concluded he was not affiliated with organized terrorist networks such as the Islamic State (ISIS) group.
Prosecuting attorneys pointed to social isolation and anxiety as contributing elements. Farhad N. declined to provide an explicit statement regarding his motives during trial proceedings. Hoehne characterized the defendant as possessing “a fragile sense of self-worth” while attempting to project “an idealized image of himself”.
Defense counsel petitioned for the defendant to be placed in a psychiatric facility. Court-appointed psychological evaluators, however, concluded that his psychological condition did not diminish his legal accountability.
Farhad N. entered Germany as an unaccompanied 15-year-old minor in 2016. Although authorities denied his formal asylum application, he received authorization to remain in the country and obtain employment. Police records indicate he held employment in the security sector and was heavily involved in bodybuilding.
Investigators determined he underwent self-radicalization during the months preceding the strike by viewing online broadcasts from extremist Afghan clerics.
The vehicle attack occurred shortly before the February 2025 parliamentary election, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party captured over 20 percent of the vote, its highest tally to date.
The event followed other violent attacks across Germany. Three weeks earlier, a fatal stabbing in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, resulted in the deaths of a two-year-old boy and a man. The suspect in that case was an Afghan national whose asylum application had been turned down, elevating immigration as a central campaign issue.
Additional violent attacks in Germany included knife incidents in Mannheim and Solingen the previous year involving Afghan and Syrian migrants. In the Solingen case, the perpetrator was a rejected asylum applicant who had been slated for deportation.
In December of 2024, a Saudi physician carried out a vehicle attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg after having previously drawn scrutiny from municipal authorities.
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