Altena arson attack
On October 3, 2015 there was an arson attack in Altena , in which two perpetrators set fire to a house in which two families lived. The case was rated controversial because, according to the public prosecutor's office, the perpetrators were “afraid of strangers”, but no explicit xenophobic motive was seen. As a result, there was a charge of aggravated arson and not attempted homicide. On January 28, 2016, however, the press office of the Hagen Regional Court announced that the attack was now to be classified as an attempted murder. On September 12, 2016, the perpetrators were sentenced to 6 and 5 years in prison for serious arson.
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Seven Syrian refugees have been housed in the building in Altena since October 3, 2015 , including a pregnant woman. The 23-year-old perpetrator got gasoline for the arson attack at a gas station. He was filmed by a surveillance camera. The other 25-year-old perpetrator lives right next to the house that he later wanted to burn down. On the night of October 4, 2015, the 23-year-old perpetrator was on guard while the second perpetrator first cut the cable of the fire alarm system and then broke into the house through a cellar door. He then sneaked into the attic, doused the roof beams with gasoline and set the roof structure on fire. A smoldering fire broke out . Neighbors were able to warn the residents in good time.
The Altena fire brigade was alerted and approached. The smoldering fire in the attic of the apartment building was quickly extinguished. When the fire brigade was deployed, the 25-year-old perpetrator, who worked as a full-time firefighter for the Lüdenscheid fire department, was a volunteer with the Altena fire department.
Perpetrator
Both perpetrators came from Altena. One lived right next to the house that he later tried to light. He was most recently fire supervisor at the Altena fire brigade after having attended several courses. He was employed as a probationary officer at the Lüdenscheid fire department and also completed training as a paramedic . After the allegations became known, he was suspended. Both perpetrators came from petty bourgeois and outwardly intact backgrounds.
Investigations and Proceedings
The younger perpetrator turned himself in to the police and the state security was able to determine the second perpetrator. During an interrogation on October 8, 2015, the confessing men justified their act with “annoyance about the entry of refugees into the residential property”. The responsible public prosecutor Bernd Maas from the public prosecutor's office in Hagen concluded from the statements of the two men that the background was “a personal conviction, not a political one.” He did not see a radical right-wing motive for the arson attack. The two men were released after their questioning, as the police said there were no “further grounds for imprisonment ”.
After criticizing the lack of pre- trial detention for the two perpetrators, prosecutor Bernd Maas said that in this specific case he was not allowed to order pre-trial detention. Maas saw no risk of repetition, because the perpetrators had finally achieved their goal of driving the refugees away. Second, according to Maas, the perpetrators credibly showed remorse. And there is also no risk of blackout, because the two had confessed. There is also no risk of escape.
At the end of November 2015, charges were brought before the Hagen district court . The prosecution accuses the two accused of serious arson in the indictment . The district court of Hagen overturned this decision and assumes that the two accused of attempted murder are sufficiently suspect. In May 2016, the proceedings before the jury chamber at the Hagen district court began. The two defendants confessed to the arson in court. On September 12, 2016, the perpetrators were convicted of serious collective arson. The firefighter was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and his accomplice five years. The judges punished the defendants for aggravated arson, not attempted murder ; that the firefighter and his friend at least accepted the death of the refugees cannot be ascertained.
In mid-2016, the Hagen public prosecutor's office opened an investigation against two officials from the state security department of the Hagen police headquarters on suspicion of obstruction of punishment . The two officers had viewed the data on the perpetrators' smartphones and their Facebook pages and did not claim to have noticed anything suspicious. This led to the original indictment that the suspects were not identified as right-wing offenders. The lawyers of the Syrian victim family independently viewed around 52,000 existing and restored pictures and messages of the perpetrators. The lawyers came across images that glorify Adolf Hitler as well as racist and misogynistic slogans. The charge was then changed.
Reactions
The Bundestag member Omid Nouripour ( Greens ) sharply criticized the decision of the public prosecutor's office: "If the public prosecutor's office belittles such acts, then somehow an 'explanation' can be found for every outrageous act". His colleague Dirk Wiese ( SPD ) said: “I think the public prosecutor's assessment is wrong. Those who set fire to a house in which there are Syrian refugees are acting out of xenophobic motives. ”The chairman of the Greens Anton Hofreiter said it was wrong for the alleged perpetrators to rely on the leniency of the investigative authorities just because they had previously lived with no punishment. He went on to say that an act like the one in Altena was particularly despicable and should be specially punished.
Henning Ernst Müller (Chair for Criminal Law, Criminology, Juvenile Criminal Law and the Prison System at the University of Regensburg ) wrote that it was surprising that not even the initial suspicion of attempted murder was accepted. In an article he put the case in the context of the arson in Solingen and compared the perpetrator's motives and the prosecution. “The fact that the StA denies that the 'killing inhibition threshold' has been overcome does not seem very convincing to me. After all, an adult trained firefighter started a fire in the roof of an inhabited house using gasoline and (presumably himself) put the fire alarm out of operation. Once based on these facts, it would be difficult for me to deny an initial suspicion according to §§ 211, 22, 23 StGB. Since the murder trait treachery would be given here, the motif background as another murder trait would not matter, ”he wrote. He points out that even those who are not members of right-wing extremist organizations can act out of xenophobia. For Müller this is the case at first sight, "even if he is disguised as 'fear' of criminal foreigners".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Right-wing violence: Altena arsonist is charged with attempted murder. In: zeit.de . January 28, 2016, accessed September 12, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Several years imprisonment for two men after an arson attack in Altena . Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, September 12, 2016
- ^ Public prosecutor: Offenders face up to 15 years imprisonment . Rheinische Post, October 12, 2015
- ↑ Defendants confess to arson attack on refugee accommodation . ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. wdr.de, May 31, 2016
- ↑ Heinz Krischer: Long prison sentences after arson attack in Altena . September 12, 2016 ( wdr.de [accessed August 17, 2017]).
- ↑ Kristian Frigelj, Düsseldorf: Blind in the right eye? Police under suspicion. In: welt.de . August 24, 2016. Retrieved September 12, 2016 .
- ↑ Attack in Altena: Investigations against police officers for obstruction of punishment - WELT. Retrieved August 17, 2017 .
- ↑ SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg Germany: Arson in the Sauerland: "A right-wing extremist attitude consists of more than xenophobia" - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Politics. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
- ↑ Arson attack on refugee family in Altena - without any political motives? | beck community. Retrieved August 18, 2017 .
