Referral requested

Attacked work colleague with a knife

The jury will decide the fate of the accused in the jury courtroom of the Salzburg Provincial Court.

(Bild: Markus Tschepp)

A Syrian man (29) has to sit in front of a judge and jury in Salzburg Provincial Court today. The reason is a knife attack on a work colleague.

The bloody incident happened on August 9, 2023 at a company in Lamprechtshausen. At the time, the Syrian tried to stab a Romanian colleague (43) in the stomach with a switchblade knife. The 43-year-old was able to evade, but the knife hit him in the thigh. This resulted in an operation. The reason for the knife attack can be found in the 29-year-old's mental illness: He had believed that his colleague wanted to sprinkle a powder for hair loss into his food and poison him.

According to an expert, the Syrian suffers from a persistent delusional disorder. He was therefore not sane at the time of the crime. For this reason, the public prosecutor's office has now applied for him to be admitted to a closed mental hospital. A jury must make the decision, as attempted murder must be assumed in the event of sanity.