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