German police and prosecutors have said the Afghan suspect in a car ramming in central Munich that injured at least 36 people is believed to have had an “Islamist” motive and will answer to charges of attempted murder.
One day after the attack on a trade union rally during the final stage of the German election campaign, the chief prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told reporters that online “communications” by the suspect, a 24-year-old asylum seeker, pointed to Islamic extremism.
The suspect, identified only as Farhad N, based on German media practice in criminal cases, is alleged to have driven his Mini Cooper around a police car guarding the union demonstration, accelerated and deliberately ploughed into the back of the 1,500-person crowd.
The shocking attack left a scene of carnage in Germany’s third largest city and stoked tensions around immigration and public safety as the country prepares to go to the polls on 23 February.
“We will surely see him [the suspect] convicted in court and before he can leave prison, he will be sent back to his home country,” Scholz said.
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