Survivors of Berlin Christmas market terror attack will NOT receive compensation
VICTIMS of the Berlin terror attack will be denied compensation under German law.
A clause in has a specific ban on payments to victims involved in a road based-attacks, like the one carried out by Anis Amri on the German Christmas Market.
As the devastated victims of the truck attack continue to piece their lives back together, questions are being raised about compensating them, especially in the wake of the security blunder that left the attacker free to kill.
The family of the lorry driver Lukasz Urban, however, will be compensated, but only because he was stabbed and shot rather than run over.
Mr Urban, who was married and had a son, bravely tried to fight off Amri after the Islamic State killer hijacked his vehicle for the attack.
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He was killed after the jihadi hijacked his HGV while he waiting to drop off steel he had hauled.
The 37-year-old was stabbed several times before being shot, but reportedly reduced total loss of life in the crash by fighting back.
The law, which is more than 30 years old, has been blasted as "absurd" by victims' representatives.
Part of the act, which was first published in January 1985, states: "This law shall not apply to damage caused by an assault a motor vehicle or a trailer."
A "fatal gap" exists in the system, according to local lawyer Ronald Weber, who says "victims and relatives of the victims of this terrorist attack can not be helped in the necessary way."
Mr Weber told the Berliner Morgenpost: "This shows very clearly how absurd this law is at this point.”
Vile Amir killed 12 people and injured more than 50 others when he rammed into a Christmas market on Monday December 19.
He was shot dead in a shoot-out with cops on Friday.
Mr urban has been described as a "good, quiet and honest person" who was devoted to his work, by his boss Lukasz Wasik.
"I believe he would not give up the vehicle and would defend it to the end if were attacked," he said on a Polish state broadcaster.