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Trial against Mehmet Ali T. in the district court of Chemnitz: landlord of a Chemnitz restaurant found guilty
Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
The district court of Chemnitz has sentenced the landlord Mehmet Ali T. to eight years imprisonment for the fire in his restaurant "Mangal" in the Saxon city.
It found him guilty of, among other things, 15 attempted murders, attempted arson resulting in death and fraud, a court spokeswoman said.
He also has to pay back almost 300,000 euros that he received from his insurance company.
Accordingly, he not only commissioned the attack, but also left a window open so that the perpetrators could enter the bar on the night of October 18, said a court spokeswoman.
The court considers it proven that T. caused the fire to get money from the insurance company because of his debts.
The chamber justified the attempted murder, among other things, with the fact that numerous residents slept in the house.
According to the public prosecutor's office, T. had commissioned three previously unknown people to set fire to the house, which contained several apartments in addition to the Kurdish restaurant.
The fire was noticed in time and no one was injured.
With the sentence, the judges remained under the request of the prosecutor, who had called for a total of ten years in prison.
The defense, however, pleaded for acquittal.
At the beginning of the trial, the defendant's lawyers criticized what they saw as incomplete investigations and questioned the credibility of a witness who had heavily incriminated the accused.
The case caused a stir across the city.
At that time, Chemnitz was in the headlines because of riots by right-wing extremists from all over Germany and there had been attacks on a Jewish and two Persian restaurants in the city.
In the case of »Mangal«, the investigators did not rule out a racist background.
The innkeeper himself had persistently claimed that the perpetrators were to be found among right-wing extremists.
He also denied the allegations in court through his lawyer.
The verdict is not yet final, but an appeal can be lodged within a week.
bbr/AFP/dpa