Saarlouis: Brand attack from 1991 - BGH confirms fatal judgment!

Saarlouis: Brand attack from 1991 - BGH confirms fatal judgment!

On January 23, 2025, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) rejected the revisions in a case that dealt with the country over three decades. The accused, Peter Werner Sch., Was sentenced in 2023 for his fatal arson attack in 1991 in Saarlouis. This decision marks a further step in the legal processing of a racially motivated crime, which led to the tragic killing of Samuel Kofi Yeboah.

The BGH confirmed the decision of the Koblenz Higher Regional Court, the Sch. in September 2023 sentenced to a youth penalty of six years and ten months. Originally, the arson attack was laid on the night of September 19, 1991 with the intention of making the asylum accommodation unusable and driving the people living there. Twenty -nine people lived in the facility at the time of the crime, 20 of whom were able to save themselves with serious injuries. Yeboah, however, lost his life due to the injuries suffered.

background and origin of the crime

The accused, then 20 years old and part of the Nazi Skinhead scene, was in a pub when the group leader expressed the desire to commit a similar ars at Hoyerswerda. The devastating incident then occurred on the said night. Sch. set fire to the stairs of accommodation with petrol and wrongly assumed that the women and men on the ground floor would react quickly enough.

Only years later, in 2019, the crime was reworked. Sch. was reported by a friend who heard his boastings at a barbecue. The initial investigations in the 1990s were initially stopped, which in retrospect the police admitted as a unfortunate deficit.

Litigation and judgments

The BGH not only rejected the revision of the accused, but also that of the federal prosecutor and four co -plaintiffs. These had requested that Sch. Also for attempted murder is convicted of the eight other residents who were in a brightly lit room. However, the Koblenz Senate argued that Sch. could not expect a fatal outcome for these people because they could save themselves in time. The BGH did not find any legal errors at the oral assessment of the Olg.

Peter Str., The leader of the Nazi Skinhead Group, was acquitted of the accusation of the foundation in 2024, which also led to the revision by the Federal Prosecutor's Office. This case also remains a topic of relevance in the context of the arson attack and the legal processing.

The arguments related to this case could have significant implications for the legal treatment of racially motivated violence in Germany. The BGH has announced that it will again deal with the Saarlouis arson attack this year.

This remains the fate of the survivors, relatives and the question of justice for the crime committed 34 years ago.