Afghan man jailed for life over deadly 2025 Munich car-ramming attack

A German court has sentenced Afghan national Farhad N. to life imprisonment for a car-ramming attack in Munich in February 2025 that killed a two-year-old girl and her mother and injured dozens of others.

The Munich court found the 25-year-old guilty of two counts of murder, 23 counts of attempted murder and 22 counts of causing bodily harm, including 19 cases of serious bodily harm, Caliber.Az reports, citing Euronews.

Judges also ruled that the crimes carried a "particular gravity of guilt," making his release from prison highly unlikely.

The attack, one of several committed by foreign nationals ahead of Germany's 2025 general election, intensified public debate over immigration and security. It took place on the eve of the Munich Security Conference.

According to the court, Farhad N. drove a Mini Cooper around a police vehicle before accelerating into a trade union march of about 1,400 people. The impact threw a 37-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter about 10 metres. Both later died from severe head injuries.

Presiding Judge Michael Hoehne said the mother had deliberately positioned herself at the back of the march because of the stronger police presence, believing it to be safer. He described the aftermath as "a field of nothing but debris" and noted that many victims continue to suffer lasting physical and psychological consequences.

Prosecutors noted that Farhad N. acted out of a religious motive and shouted "Allahu Akbar" after the attack, although they found no evidence linking him to an organised jihadist group such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State. They also cited loneliness and anxiety as contributing factors. Farhad N. did not explain his motives during the trial.

The defence had sought his transfer to a psychiatric facility, but court-appointed experts concluded that his mental health did not diminish his criminal responsibility.

Farhad N. arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016. Although his asylum application was rejected, he was allowed to remain in the country and found work in the security sector. Investigators believe he became radicalised in the months before the attack by consuming online sermons from radical Afghan preachers.

The attack occurred days before Germany's February 2025 federal election, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved its best-ever result.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov