Overview

• The decision comes more than a year after Daniel S. set a blaze that killed a Bulgarian family of four and injured dozens in a Solingen apartment building.
• Prosecutors have asked the court to determine particular gravity of guilt and impose preventive detention following a life sentence.
• Defense counsel and victims’ representatives clashed over motive, with victims’ lawyers pointing to racist poems, right-wing files and uncharged attacks as evidence of extremist intent.
• Investigators found an arsenal of accelerants and ignition devices in the defendant’s former residence and are separately probing two additional suspected arson incidents.
• Judge Jochen Kötter’s panel will conclude a trial that exposed deep divisions over the judiciary’s recognition of possible racist motivations.