Man who attacked Jew in Germany sent to psychiatric hospital

BERLIN – A German court on Friday ordered a man who attacked a Jewish student in Hamburg in October to be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

The Hamburg district court said the attacker, a 29-year-old German man of Kazakh origin who was not further identified, was mentally ill and suffering from religious delusions and therefore could not be held legally accountable for the attack. He had been charged with attempted manslaughter and dangerous bodily harm.

The man hit the Jewish university student on his head in front of a Hamburg synagogue during the holiday of Sukkot. The student had to be admitted to a hospital with severe injuries but survived the attack.

Judge Birgit Woitas said while it was clear “this was a targeted attack on a Jew,” the attacker was a “mentally ill person who acted on his own,” German news agency dpa reported.