The Advocate General on Thursday requested 30 years of criminal imprisonment before the Assizes of Haut-Rhin against a 31-year-old man accused of having deliberately started a fire in a building in Mulhouse in 2017, killing six people, including four children.
To read also: Mulhouse: the fire "very probably of criminal origin"
Sandra Di Rosa also requested a 20-year safety sentence against Aurélien Roellinger, who admitted to being the author of the fire that occurred on the night of October 1 to 2, 2017 in the popular district of Bourtzwiller.
This father of two children, very alcoholic at the time of the facts, denies on the other hand any premeditation and homicidal intention.
The fire started in the basement of the four-story building, before toxic fumes flooded the stairwell.
Six people were killed, including four children aged 6 to 11.
Eight others were injured, two of them seriously burned.
Aurélien Roellinger, who lived in the building, was quickly arrested.
After first admitting to having thrown a cigarette butt in a stroller in the basement, he confessed during the investigation to having set fire with his lighter to some flyers which were in the stroller.
He "
wants us to believe in a whim.
No: he acted thoughtfully, voluntarily
", estimated Sandra Di Rosa, according to which the accused, returned to live in Bourtzwiller after a separation, harbored"
resentment vis-à-vis this building (...) not worthy of him
”and had only“
contempt and disdain for its inhabitants
”.
"
He waited for the opportune moment to set fire to this building
" and knew "
the dramatic consequences
" of his act, continued the magistrate.
"
He must be punished at the height of the seriousness of the facts and its consequences
", she again launched to the jurors, who withdrew to deliberate around 11:30.
"
He set fire without premeditation, without preparation (...) Destroy voluntarily, yes.
Wanting to kill, no
”, pleaded his lawyer, Samir Ayari.
Referring to the nights of his client now "
haunted by the specter of guilt
", he urged the jurors to pronounce a less heavy sentence than the requisitions.
Very little verbose since the opening of the trial on Monday, the accused however apologized to the civil parties: “
I would like to reiterate my sincere condolences, even if you will not accept them, and my apologies.
What I have done is horrible
”.
