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Main culprit in fire attack on homeless man gets two years’ jail

The main perpetrator behind a fire attack on a sleeping homeless man in Berlin last Christmas Eve was sentenced on Tuesday to two years and nine months in prison.

Published: 13 June 2017 15:37 CEST

Main culprit in fire attack on homeless man gets two years' jail

Schönleinstraße station, where the attack took place. Photo: DPA.

The 21-year-old man was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to cause grievous bodily for lighting a fire next to a sleeping homeless man in Berlin on Christmas Eve last year.

Six other refugees who were with him at the time were also convicted of charges of either assisting in the crime, or of failing to assist the homeless man.

The group of young men from either Syria or Libya had seen the homeless man sleeping on a bench at an U-Bahn train station in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. The 21-year-old then lit a tissue and placed it directly next to the 37-year-old Polish man's head.

The Polish man had a cover over his head and was using his rucksack as a pillow. Both rucksack and cover caught fire and started to burn.

As the group fled the scene, passengers who got out of a train were able to put out the flames, and the homeless man remained unharmed.

Prosecutors had sought to charge six of the seven defendants with attempted murder, but the court instead decided on a lighter conviction of attempted grievous bodily harm for the 21-year-old.

The main suspect had argued in court that he lit the tissue on fire and put it by the victim “only to startle him with a small fire.” His companions argued that they had nothing to do with the crime.

Three 17- to 18-year-olds from the group were sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of probation for assisting the crime, while a 16- and 19-year-old were given four weeks detention as well as community service for failing to help the homeless man.

The seventh member of the group had previously been sentenced to two weeks of youth detention for not helping the victim.

The case rocked Germany at the time, with clips from CCTV camera footage released to help catch the culprits.

In recent months there have been similar arson attacks on homeless people. In Hamburg a 49-year-old homeless man's sleeping bag was set alight in April. In February meanwhile, the sleeping area of two homeless men was set on fire in a parking lot, also in the port city.

Nine face trial in Germany for alleged far-right coup plot

Nine suspected participants in the coup plot will take the stand in the first set of proceedings to open in the sprawling court case, split among three courts in three cities.

The suspects are accused of having participated in the “military arm” of the organisation led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss.

The alleged plot is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.

The organisation led by Reuss was an eclectic mix of characters and included, among others, a former special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.

Reuss, along with other suspected senior members of the group, will face trial in the second of the three cases, in Frankfurt in late May.

The group aimed to install him as head of state after its planned takeover.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022.

Heinrich XIII arrested at his home following a raid in 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The alleged plotters espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbûrger (Citizens of the Reich) scene, according to prosecutors.

The Reichsbürger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.

Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.

Such Reichsbürger groups were driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in Berlin on Sunday.

“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant ‘Reichsbürger’ structures,” she added.

READ ALSO: Who was involved in the alleged plot to overthrow German democracy?

‘Treasonous undertaking’

According to investigators, Reuss’s group shared a belief that Germany was run by members of a “deep state” and that the country could be liberated with the help of a secret international alliance.

The nine men to stand trial in Stuttgart are accused by prosecutors of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” as part of the Reichsbürger plot.

As part of the group, they are alleged to have aimed to “forcibly eliminate the existing state order” and replace it with their own institutions.

The members of the military arm were tasked with establishing, supplying and recruiting new members for “territorial defence companies”, according to prosecutors.

Among the accused are a special forces soldier, identified only as Andreas M. in line with privacy laws, who is said to have used his access to scout out army barracks.

Others were allegedly responsible for the group’s IT systems or were tasked with liaising with the fictitious underground “alliance”, which they thought would rally to the plotters’ aid when the coup was launched.

The nine include Alexander Q., who is accused by federal prosecutors of acting as the group’s propagandist, spreading conspiracy theories via the Telegram messaging app.

Two of the defendants, Markus L. and Ralf S., are accused of weapons offences in addition to the charge of treason.

Markus L. is also accused of attempted murder for allegedly turning an assault rifle on police and injuring two officers during a raid at his address in March 2023.

Police swooped in to arrest most of the group in raids across Germany in December 2022 and the charges were brought at the end of last year.

Three-part trial

Proceedings in Stuttgart are set to continue until early 2025.

In all, 26 people are accused in the huge case against the extremist network, with trials also set to open in Munich and Frankfurt.

Reuss will stand trial in Frankfurt from May 21st, alongside another ringleader, an ex-army officer identified as Ruediger v.P., and a former MP for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann.

The Reichsbürger group had allegedly organised a “council” to take charge after their planned putsch, with officials warning preparations were at an advanced stage.

The alleged plotters had resources amounting to 500,000 euros ($536,000) and a “massive arsenal of weapons”, according to federal prosecutors.

Long dismissed as malcontents and oddballs, believers in Reichsbuerger-type conspiracies have become increasingly radicalised in recent years and are seen as a growing security threat.

Earlier this month, police charged a new suspect in relation to another coup plot.

The plotters, frustrated with pandemic-era restrictions, planned to kidnap the German health minister, according to investigators.

Five other suspected co-conspirators in that plot went on trial in Koblenz last May.

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