Flowers at the 16-year-old’s memorial site in September 2025.Image: www.imago-images.de
After the trial surrounding the death of 16-year-old Liana, who was pushed in front of a freight train in Germany, the accused has to go to psychiatric care. The case surrounding the girl, who fled Ukraine to Germany with her family in 2022, made headlines.
April 29, 2026, 5:18 p.mApril 29, 2026, 5:18 p.m
The jury is convinced that the accused pushed the young person in front of a passing train at Friedland train station in the summer of 2025. The 16-year-old suffered head injuries in the collision, which, according to investigators, killed her immediately. Liana was buried with great sympathy in September 2025.
The judge in the Göttingen regional court said that the 31-year-old accused would be placed in a psychiatric hospital. An expert diagnosed the man with paranoid schizophrenia.
Attack sparked political debates
The violent death is still a political concern to this day because, according to European asylum rules, the Iraqi who was obliged to leave the country should actually have been brought from Germany to Lithuania months before the crime. The state reception authority therefore submitted an application for detention pending deportation, which the Hanover district court rejected. On Wednesday, the state parliament of the state of Lower Saxony should again deal with possible consequences.
Prosecutors speak of a treacherous murder
Because of the paranoid schizophrenia, the Göttingen public prosecutor’s office assumed that the accused was not guilty at the time of the crime. Therefore, there was no regular criminal trial with an indictment, but rather a so-called security procedure. This not only clarifies whether the accused is the perpetrator, but also whether he will be placed in a psychiatric hospital.
Despite the lack of guilt, the prosecutors described the crime as a treacherous murder in their plea and explained that, from their point of view, the accused posed a danger to the public. After nine days of trial, the defense came to a different conclusion and pleaded for acquittal due to lack of evidence. The co-prosecution, which represented the mother of the woman killed, demanded a conviction for murder and advocated a change to regular criminal proceedings. (sda/dpa)