Iraqi man on trial for Berlin motorway rampage

The trial opened in Berlin on Thursday of an Iraqi man accused of causing a series of motorway crashes in an Islamist-inspired episode of religious mania.

Sarmad A., 30, is accused of deliberately ramming several cars and motorbikes on Berlin's Autobahn 100, acting under what prosecutors described as "delusional religious and Islamist motives".  

At least three motorcyclists were seriously injured in the collisions in the city's Tempelhof-Schoeneberg district, with other road users hit by flying debris.

When he emerged from his mangled car after the rampage, Sarmad A. allegedly placed a box on the roof and claimed it contained a "dangerous object".

German media reported that he shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is Greatest) as he stepped out from the car.

Sarmad A. is accused of three counts of attempted murder, dangerous interference with traffic and fleeing the scene of an accident.

He was placed in a psychiatric facility after his arrest and has been declared not criminally responsible due to mental illness.

The prosecution is seeking his permanent internment in the psychiatric facility.

Sarmad A. had been living in Germany under "tolerated" status granted to people whose asylum requests have been rejected, but who cannot be deported.

People with ties to Islamist extremism have carried out several violent attacks in Germany in recent years, the worst being a truck ramming at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016 that killed 12 people.

The trial of a Syrian extremist accused of stabbing a German tourist to death in an apparently homophobic attack began in the eastern city of Dresden on Monday.

The 21-year-old, named by German media as Abdullah A., is charged with attacking two men with a 21-centimetre blade, one of whom later died from his injuries in hospital.

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