German Fire Officer on Trial for Torching House
Source dpa, Hamburg, Germany (TNS)
Hagen -- A fire safety officer has admitted to starting a fire at a house accommodating Syrian refugees in western Germany because he thought the residents were a threat to locals, a court heard on Tuesday.
"I was scared of break-ins, thefts, violence and also sexual assaults," the 25-year-old said on the first day of his trial in the city of Hagen, 15 kilometres south of Dortmund.
The prosecution believes the man doused the attic of a house in the town of Altena in petrol before setting the property alight. Seven Syrian refugees were sleeping in the ground floor flat at the time.
No one was injured, and the defendant denies any intent to cause harm, but faces charges of attempted murder.
The man's friend is thought to have kept watch during the alleged arson attack.
Anti-foreigner sentiment has been on the rise in Germany following an influx of 1.1 million migrants to the country last year. Among the arrivals are many refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, as well as economic migrants with little chance of asylum.
A spate of sexual assaults and thefts purportedly carried out by migrants in the city of Cologne on New Year's Eve has stoked suspicions that some of the new arrivals pose a threat to German law and order.
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