Arson attack: Witness rejects statements of the accused
In the trial for the arson attack on a school in Bochum, the main witness has rejected the defendant's statements about the target of the attack. The German-Iranian had spoken of a synagogue as the target from the very beginning, the witness told the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court on Wednesday. The accused had confessed to the crime during the trial, but stated that he had thrown the incendiary device at the school on behalf of a Hells Angels rocker wanted for murder. However, the public prosecutor's office assumes in the indictment that the synagogue was the actual target.
The witness accused the accused of backing the regime in Iran. In fact, the federal prosecution assumes that state authorities in Iran are behind the crime. Investigators recently also suspected that this is where the alleged client Ramin Y., who is wanted for murder and attempted murder in two other cases, was located.
According to his own statements, the witness had been asked by the accused, a good friend of his, to help him with an arson attack on the synagogue in Dortmund. He had pointed out that the synagogue there was too heavily guarded. The accused then brought up other synagogues in North Rhine-Westphalia. The man reported the plan to the police instead, according to his own statements, in order to prevent his friend from committing the crime.
However, the witness was unable to provide any information about Ramin Y. In his confession, the accused had stated that he had only carried out the job out of fear of the former head of the Hells Angels Mönchengladbach. The witness stated that the accused had indeed been nervous during their conversations, but also claimed that he had been under the protection of Ramin Y.
The trial is due to continue on Thursday. The federal prosecutor's statement is also expected then.
The witness's rejection of the accused's statements has brought extreme tensions to the trial. Despite the accused's confession linking the arson attack to a Hells Angels member, the public prosecutor believes extremist beliefs could have driven the crime towards a synagogue as the intended target. The ongoing trial and federal prosecutor's statement await to clarify these conspiracy theories surrounding the crime.
Source: www.dpa.com
