Germany's Federal Prosecution on Tuesday filed charges against a man accused of driving a car into a demonstration by trade union Verdi in Munich, killing two people.

The suspect, named Farhad N. in accordance with Germany's privacy laws, is accused of two charges of murder and 44 charges of attempted murder, the prosecution said, with his motive being his "excessive religious motivation."

Farhad N., an Afghan national, said he decided to carry out the attack and kill Germans indiscriminately as a reaction to the suffering of Muslims in predominantly Islamic countries, according to the prosecution.

What are the details of the attack?

The attack took place last February, as Germany's biggest trade union, Verdi, held a demonstration in Munich.

A 37-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter were killed in the attack, and many others were severely injured.

The Higher Regional Court in Munich will have to approve the charges. 

What were the reactions back then?

Germany came under a series of attacks that were blamed on migrants, including a car ramming at a Christmas market in the eastern city of Magdeburg in December that killed six people and injured over 300.

It brought a wide range of reactions, from then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD).

"Every single one of these acts is unbearable," Scholz of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) said back then, adding that assailants who are not German citizens must be deported after committing such an act. 

The Munich attack was carried out less than two weeks before the German general election, heating the debate on tougher migration policies. The AfD achieved its best-ever result in that election, with over 20% of the vote.

Then-opposition leader and now-Chancellor Friedrich Merz, of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that the safety of the people in Germany would be a priority for his future government. 

The Bavarian branch of the AfD party demanded that Bavarian Premier Markus Söder, from the conservative CSU party, resign. The CSU is the sister party of the CDU. 

Söder himself said that a "fundamental" change has to take place in Germany.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery