A migrant who brutally beheaded his victim and caused his intestines to spill out while he was still alive may avoid deportation from Germany, as prosecutors fear he could simply return from Somalia.
Mursal Mohamed Seid, 24, was convicted of murdering his 52-year-old flatmate, Alex K., in a homeless shelter in Regen, Bavaria, in July 2021. Seid stabbed his victim 111 times before beheading him, later claiming he believed his flatmate was possessed by demons he had to kill.
The attack was so vicious that Alex K.’s intestines spilled out while he was still alive, according to reports from German media at the time. Seid, believed to have been experiencing a schizophrenic episode, was subsequently placed in a high-security ward at the district hospital in Mainkofen, Bavaria.
German immigration authorities are seeking to deport Seid back to Somalia, but prosecutors are hesitant to issue a deportation order due to concerns that he could return to Germany. The German tabloid Bild reported that prosecutors believe Seid would likely find a way back into the country.
Just weeks after the murder, Seid attempted to escape from the high-security hospital by hiding in a food cart. His second escape attempt occurred last week, when he managed to evade his female minders—a psychologist and an intern—during a family screening of a Disney film. He remained on the run for eight hours before being apprehended by 100 police officers three miles from the cinema.
Prosecutors are currently weighing whether Seid’s sentence in the secure hospital ward could be waived in favor of deportation to Somalia. Senior public prosecutor Oliver Baumgartner told Bild, “The prescribed overall assessment must include, among other things, the seriousness of the crime, the dangerousness of the convicted person, and the likelihood that the convicted person will return to Germany.”
Baumgartner noted that deportation could result in Seid being free in Somalia without proper treatment, increasing the risk of his return to Germany. Despite these concerns, Seid wrote a letter in February refusing to be deported to Somalia.
Even with concerns about Seid’s treatment progress, he was granted a lower security level, allowing him to leave the hospital grounds with a minder. Sabine Baeter, a spokeswoman for the district, explained that the goal was to test Seid’s resilience outside the clinical environment and prepare him for reintegration into society.
However, Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, has questioned the decision to allow Seid to visit the cinema, stating, “I will initiate a thorough investigation into why the district hospital even allowed this highly dangerous man to go to the cinema.”
Seid arrived in Germany in 2018 as part of an asylum seeker program after fleeing Somalia for Sudan and then Libya, according to the German outlet Nius. Before the murder, Seid had already accumulated convictions for bodily harm, robbery, theft with attempted dangerous bodily harm, and fraudulently obtaining services. In February 2021, he received a two-year suspended sentence for these crimes but was allowed to return to the homeless shelter where he later killed his flatmate.