Rail – Wiesbaden – After sabotage on ICE route: judgment is announced – economy

Niedernhausen / Wiesbaden (dpa) – Around a year after the sabotage on the ICE high-speed route Frankfurt-Cologne, the judgment against a 52-year-old man is announced today in the Wiesbaden district court. The prosecution charged him with attempted murder and called for a prison sentence of 13 years. The defendant’s lawyer demanded an acquittal, as his client’s culpability had not been proven.

According to the indictment, the man with multiple criminal records is said to have removed over 250 screws from the rails near Niedernhausen in mid-March 2020 in order to derail a train. More than 400 trains passed the dangerous place at high speed over several days until two ICE train drivers became aware of it on March 20th. A check revealed that the tracks were loose over a distance of around 80 meters.

According to an expert in the process, which took around two months, an ICE would have derailed if another 5 to 30 trains had run over the rails. This would have resulted in a catastrophe with several deaths. The defendant was homeless at the time of the crime. A few days after the loose track was discovered, he was arrested in Cologne. Since then he has been in custody.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210328-99-04339 / 2

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