Some four months after the 18-hour hostage-taking at Germany’s Hamburg Airport, the public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against the alleged perpetrator.
The 35-year-old Turkish man is to answer for hostage-taking, kidnapping of minors, intentional bodily harm and weapons offences, the prosecution announced on Thursday.
The man is accused of abducting his 4-year-old daughter from her mother’s flat in Stade in the state of Lower Saxony on the evening of November 4 and driving to Hamburg Airport with the child. He broke through three barriers with the car and drove onto the airport apron.
There, the 35-year-old shot several times into the air with a pistol and threw two burning Molotov cocktails out of the vehicle. He also claimed to have three bombs with him.
According to the indictment, he wanted to use his actions to force his demand that an aircraft be made available for him and his daughter to leave for Turkey. The background to this was a custody dispute with the child’s mother.
It was only after 18 hours that the man surrendered to the police and was detained. The entire airport was paralysed during the operation.