Munich car-ramming attacker jailed for life over trade union march deaths

A Munich court has sentenced a 25-year-old man identified only as Farhad N. to life in prison for ploughing a Mini Cooper into a trade union march in February, killing a 37-year-old woman and her young daughter and injuring dozens more. The verdict, delivered on Tuesday, included a rare designation of "particular gravity of guilt" that makes early release highly unlikely.

The attack occurred when Farhad N. drove around a police vehicle and accelerated into the rear of a 1,400-strong demonstration organised by the Verdi union. The mother had deliberately positioned herself at the back of the march because she believed the stronger police presence there would keep her family safer, presiding judge Michael Hoehne told the court. Both victims were thrown 10 metres through the air and died days later from severe head injuries.

Online radicalisation and missed warnings

Prosecutors argued the attacker acted from a "religious motivation" though he was not part of any structured group such as Islamic State. Farhad N. arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016. His asylum claim was rejected but he was permitted to remain and work, eventually taking a job in security while pursuing bodybuilding. Court-appointed psychiatric experts found his mental health issues did not diminish his criminal responsibility, a conclusion the defence contested.

"Some of those injured are still suffering today. One victim said they had lived one life before the attack and another one after it."

Judge Hoehne described the scene after the collision as "a field of nothing but debris, 12 metres wide" and noted the only reason the death toll was not higher was that the bodies of those struck eventually brought the car to a halt. The defendant showed no emotion as the verdict was read.

Political reverberations

The attack took place days before the February 2025 federal election in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) secured its best-ever result, above 20 per cent. The centre-right CDU/CSU bloc won and Friedrich Merz became chancellor pledging stricter immigration controls to undercut AfD support. Since then, however, CDU/CSU polling has declined while the AfD has opened a consistent lead, suggesting the political fallout from security incidents continues to reshape the landscape.

With the life sentence and gravity-of-guilt ruling confirmed, Farhad N. will serve a minimum of 15 years before any parole review, though the designation means release remains improbable. The verdict closes a chapter for the victims' families but leaves open broader questions about integration, online radicalisation and the limits of preventive policing.