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Murder victim Samuel Yeboah
Photo: STR/AFP
More than 30 years after an arson attack on an asylum accommodation in Saarlouis, the federal prosecutor's office has brought charges against a neo-Nazi who was active at the time.
The Karlsruhe investigative authority accuses the 51-year-old Peter Werner S. of setting the fire in the refugee home in September 1991.
Samuel Yeboah, an asylum seeker from Ghana, died in the fire.
Other refugees could only save themselves by jumping out of the windows and suffered broken bones.
Peter Werner S. is now accused of murder and attempted murder in 20 cases and arson resulting in death.
The federal prosecutor's office assumes a right-wing extremist and racist motive for the crime.
S.'s defense attorney has not yet responded to a request.
According to the investigation, Peter Werner S. is said to have been sitting with other right-wing extremists in a restaurant in Saarlouis in the late evening of September 18, 1991.
They talked about the racist attacks in Hoyerswerda, Saxony, which had started the day before and caused a stir throughout Germany.
According to a witness, one of the neo-Nazis said, "Something like that should be burning here."
According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, that same night S. went alone to the asylum seekers' home in the former Hotel "Weißes Rößl" to commit an attack.
On the ground floor, he poured gasoline onto a wooden staircase and set it on fire.
Within a very short time, the fire spread through the stairwell - and caught Samuel Yeboah in the attic, who suffered severe burns and smoke inhalation.
A few hours later, the Ghanaian died in hospital.
Confession at the barbecue?
Immediately after the attack, suspicions arose that the local skinhead scene might have had something to do with the murder.
But after a few superficial interviews with neo-Nazis, the Saarland investigators ruled out involvement in the crime.
In the summer of 1992, the public prosecutor's office in Saarbrücken temporarily discontinued the proceedings.
The testimony of a witness led to the resumption of the investigation.
The woman reported to the police in autumn 2019.
She reported that a few years ago at a barbecue evening, a man with the nickname "Schlappi" confessed to the attack - that's what Peter Werner S. was called in the Saarlouis skinhead scene.
"It was me," he is said to have said to her, "and they never caught me."
The federal prosecutor took over the procedure and finally had S. arrested in April 2022.
srö/wow