Man accused of attacking seven people in Zofingen goes on trial

A 44-year-old man accused of attacking seven people in Zofingen in 2024 appeared before the Zofingen District Court on Monday. The case was reported by SRF.

The Spanish-born man is charged with multiple counts of attempted homicide and coercion, trespassing, assault and other offences. Prosecutors are seeking an inpatient therapeutic measure known as “small preventive detention” under Article 59 of the Swiss Criminal Code, as well as a 15-year expulsion from Switzerland. The defence’s requests were not yet known.

According to the indictment, the man attacked passers-by at random. All seven survived, but some were seriously injured. Prosecutors say several victims continue to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

One woman was attacked in an underpass near Zofingen railway station while walking to work. The indictment says the man chased her, struck her repeatedly on the head and face with a metal object, then fled. She was pregnant and later suffered a miscarriage, which prosecutors attribute to the incident. She remains unable to work, and some of her injuries have not healed.

The man also attacked people on their way to work, to school or shopping, using a metal object, a ballpoint pen and later a knife, according to the indictment. He entered two houses and injured a resident in the second. Police special units later arrested him.

A court-appointed expert diagnosed the man with chronic paranoid schizophrenia, describing the condition as particularly severe because it had persisted for a long time. She said he had been prescribed antidepressants but had not taken them, and that cannabis had worsened his psychosis. The man believed the Mafia was pursuing him and intended to kill him and members of his family, the expert said.