Process - Arson attack in Bochum: Appeal lodged against verdict
The arson attack on a school in Bochum, which was allegedly aimed at the neighboring synagogue, will be dealt with by the Federal Court of Justice. A 36-year-old man was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison last week. His defense lawyer has since lodged an appeal, a spokeswoman for the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court said on Thursday in response to an inquiry. The lawyer had applied for a six-month suspended sentence for damage to property.
The findings of the Higher Regional Court had strained relations between Germany and Iran. The court was convinced that Iranian authorities were behind the arson attack, as the presiding judge explained in his ruling. The convicted German-Iranian had been found guilty by the Higher Regional Court of conspiracy to commit aggravated arson and attempted arson.
In the grounds for the verdict, the court also assumed that the arson attack and the shots fired at the rabbi's house in Essen were connected and that it had been a coordinated action to stir up insecurity in Germany. The accused had confessed to having thrown an incendiary device at the school building. The synagogue had not been his target, he had claimed.
The 36-year-old shared the anti-Israeli stance of the Iranian regime. According to the court, he had only thrown the incendiary device at the neighboring school because he thought the synagogue was too well secured. The attack on November 17 last year caused minor damage to the school building.
Following the verdict, the Foreign Office summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Iranian embassy. "We will not tolerate any foreign-controlled violence in Germany," the Foreign Office said in a statement. According to the state news agency Irna, Iran summoned the German ambassador a day later. The Islamic Republic had protested against the accusation that the man had acted on behalf of Iranian state agencies, it said.
Report at Irna, Persian
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Source: www.stern.de
