A 34-year-old migrant-background man who stabbed two young girls in a Berlin school playground has had his case thrown out by the German legal system on the grounds that he is mentally unwell and cannot be held responsible for nearly murdering two children aged seven and eight.
Berhan S. was allegedly in a “psychotic state at the time of the crime due to a mental illness,” according to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office, which argued he was “incapable of guilt.”
The prosecutor’s office further stated that he apparently heard “voices that ordered him to kill the girls” before he scaled a fence and stabbed two young girls in the neck and chest while the other children “looked on in horror.” Fortunately, neither of the girls died, though both suffered life-changing injuries.
Berhan S. has also had a long criminal history, including stabbing his former girlfriend in 2009. The former girlfriend’s mother told the media that he came from a “strictly Islamic Turkish family” that threatened to murder her if she went to the police.
“Many questions remain unanswered: Was Berhan S. observed by the police? What role does his religious indoctrination play? Why did he hear his voices in front of a Christian school?” States the German writer, Gunnar Schupelius.
