Overview

• The court convicted a 35-year-old former refugee center resident of attempted murder and arson, handing down a seven-year prison term for the November blaze.
• Judges determined the Algerian national deliberately set the fire to force his transfer from the remote Eifel facility after he had threatened to burn down the accommodation.
• No eyewitnesses emerged, but the court relied on his prior threats, witness accounts of his behavior and his criminal history to find him fully culpable.
• Prosecutors had sought a nine-year sentence while his defense sought acquittal on grounds of missing direct proof, but the court upheld his full liability.
• The defendant, who acknowledged long-term cocaine and cannabis use and experienced a psychiatric hospitalization, remains in custody as his deportation status remains unresolved.