Trial for arson attack: Defense demands acquittal

Attack on asylum home - Trial for arson attack: Defense demands acquittal

In the trial for a fatal arson attack on an asylum seeker home in Saarlouis in 1991, the defense requests acquittal. A sober assessment of the evidence collection leads to the result that the assistance cannot be proven, said one of the lawyers in the closing argument at the Higher Regional Court of Koblenz.

The trial, which stands more than 30 years after the crime, is shortly before its conclusion. In 1991, the then 27-year-old asylum seeker Samuel Yeboah from West Africa, Ghana, died in the fire. The perpetrator was sentenced to imprisonment, among other things, for murder in the past October. The judgment is not yet legally binding. He is said to have been encouraged by the words of the accused and to have set fire to the asylum seeker home in Saarlouis.

It can be relatively assured that the accused was with the convicted perpetrator and another acquaintance at a tavern the evening before the arson attack and consumed a lot of alcohol, said the lawyer. However, exactly what was said there cannot be proven. "The suspicion of the crime was on thin ice and this ice has now broken," said lawyer Wolfgang Stahl to journalists after the hearing.

The 55-year-old accused is therefore charged with accessory to murder before the court. The Federal Prosecutor's Office demanded six and a half years of imprisonment on Monday. Until the legally binding judgment, the presumption of innocence applies. The court will pronounce the judgment on the coming Tuesday.

1. Despite the accusations of being an accessory to murder, the defendant in Coblenz is hoping for an acquittal in the trial relating to the 1991 arson attack on a home for asylum seekers in Saarlouis.
2. The Higher Regional Court of Koblenz is set to deliver its verdict on the case, which has been ongoing for over three decades, following the defense's request for acquittal due to insufficient evidence.
3. The defendant's lawyer argues that the evidence collected in the case does not prove the defendant's assistance in the arson attack, which led to the death of the Ghanaian asylum seeker Samuel Yeboah in Saarlouis.
4. The lawyer for the accused admitted that his client was present with the convicted perpetrator and another acquaintance at a tavern the night before the arson attack, but he could not provide concrete evidence of what was said between them.
5. The Federal Prosecutor's Office demanded a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence for the defendant in the ongoing Rhineland-Palatinate process, but the presumption of innocence still applies until the court's legally binding judgment.
6. The accused, a 55-year-old man from Saarland, is facing charges of being an accessory to murder for allegedly encouraging the perpetrator to set fire to the asylum seeker's home in Saarlouis.
7. If the court finds the defendant guilty, the legal consequences could include a significant prison sentence and damaging the defendant's reputation for their alleged role in the arson attack that resulted in a tragic murder.

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