Germany: 30 years later, an extremist tried for the fire of a refugee home
The trial of a right-wing extremist accused of setting fire to a refugee hostel, which cost the death of a young Ghanaian in 1991, opened on Wednesday (November 16th) in Koblenz, in the west of Germany.
AP - Jean-Francois Badias
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The trial of a right-wing extremist accused of setting fire to a refugee hostel, which cost the death of a young Ghanaian in 1991, opened on Wednesday (November 16th) in Koblenz, in the west of Germany.
Thirty years later, new elements of the investigation led to the indictment of the accused.
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Samuel Yebohah died aged 27, trapped by flames in the Saarlouis refugee home where he lived.
Eighteen other occupants have managed to take shelter, recalls our correspondent in Berlin,
Nathalie Versieux.
The public prosecutor of Koblenz is convinced that it was Peter S, a German now aged 51, who started the fire out of hatred for asylum seekers.
He must respond to charges of "murder, attempted murder in 20 cases and arson resulting in the death" of Samuel Yeboah.
“
He accepted that residents could be killed or injured
”, denounced the general prosecutor Sophie Gössl on reading the indictment, underlining “
his deep contempt and enormous hostility
” towards the refugees.
Peter S. refutes the charge.
According to his lawyer Guido Britz, who is asking for a dismissal, he also admits having been a skinhead, but has distanced himself from this ideology since 2007. The trial could last until June.
A “
leadership role
” within radical right-wing movements
The case remained unsolved for decades.
Peter S. had certainly been suspected at the time, but the investigations had been abandoned for lack of sufficient evidence.
Investigators attributed to him a “
leadership role
” within radical right-wing movements, according to German media.
In particular, he would have participated, in 1996, in a far-right demonstration in which were present future members of the neo-Nazi group NSU, responsible for a dozen assassinations in the 2000s, mainly of foreigners.
The investigation was relaunched two years ago following new clues.
The accused was arrested on April 4.
In the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, several attacks on homes for asylum seekers shook Germany, particularly in the former GDR, such as Hoyerswerda in Saxony.
(with
AFP
)
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