56 people, 22 of them children and young people, were sleeping in the asylum seekers’ home in the center of the Lower Bavarian town of Simbach am Inn when Andreas B. set out on an October night a year ago. Drunk and full of hatred for refugees, he wants to set fire to the house. He sets fire to floor mats and scraps of cloth in front of both emergency exits in order to block the residents’ escape routes. Then he pushes a waste paper container against the wall at the back of the building and sets it on fire.
A dispatcher from the nearby train station noticed the fire and called the police. Residents of the accommodation who have now woken up can extinguish the fire before the fire brigade arrives. Nobody is injured, the damage to the building amounts to 15,000 euros. B. can escape that night. He was arrested two months later and has been in prison ever since.
On Monday, the insurance salesman from Pilsting was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, the verdict is final. The Munich public prosecutor had accused him of attempted murder in 56 cases and serious arson. The Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism, which also took over the investigations in this case, is also based at the Office of the Public Prosecutor General.
B. celebrated his 42nd birthday on the night of the crime in a discotheque in Braunau, Austria, together with his partner Vanessa L. and their mutual friend Thomas K. The neighboring towns of Braunau and Simbach are separated only by the Inn. When the trio returned to Thomas K.’s Simbach apartment, there was a dispute between B. and his girlfriend. The Attorney General saw it as proven that this dispute, B’s basic racist attitude and alcohol consumption led to his plan to set fire to the asylum seekers’ accommodation and accept the death of the 56 people there. Most of them came from countries at war such as Syria, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Andreas B. said that he could not remember the night of the crime
Andreas B. testified in court that he could hardly remember the night of the crime because of his heavy alcohol consumption. He also denied having a right-wing attitude. However, the prosecutor also relied on several voice messages that the man had sent on the night of the crime, which paint a different picture. When B. set out, he first sent a voice message to his ex-wife: “I’m going to the asylum center now… and then I’ll storm into Simbach (…) I’ll die for my children, because I’m okay Asylum seekers in my country tolerate.., none! My children grow up without asylum seekers and soin seng – da papa hod what’s there… “
A few minutes later he sent another, clearly right-wing voice message to his then partner L.: “Hi, you’ve sent my voice message to the last moi. Um, I’m going to the asylum seekers’ home now.. and if it doesn’t survive, then I’ll survive ned – shit gall (…) I don’t know how you might knock that down, but I’ll knock the house down. And I’ll light it up! And if I die then I’ll die… then I’ll die for my children and for my fatherland, ok?”
He sent a picture of the burning doormat in front of one of the emergency exits to his friend K. and wrote: “I hope it’s on fire.”
The accused in the hearing room of the district court. He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
(Photo: Armin Weigel/dpa)
The main suspect said in court that he could not explain this news and was “extremely shocked” about it himself. The criminal court also ordered the man to be placed in a rehabilitation center. According to the psychiatric expert, there is a high risk that the 42-year-old could commit further crimes under the influence of alcohol. His partner L. and friend K. were also charged because they did not call the police despite the news. In the meantime, L. had even been to the crime scene himself – and left again. Both were fined.
Alexander Thal, spokesman for the Bavarian Refugee Council, is pleased with this verdict: “We are very pleased that violence against refugees is not dismissed as trivial. Anyone who tries to set fire to residential buildings and thus endangers human lives must of course be brought to justice for attempted murder and for that to get punished!”
The security staff at the asylum seeker accommodation in Simbach has been strengthened. Nevertheless, it could not be prevented that five weeks ago the walls were smeared with Nazi symbols.
(Photo: Government of Lower Bavaria)
The organization BUD from Nuremberg, which works for victims of right-wing violence and documents right-wing crimes, sees the judgment as a “clear signal” against right-wing extremism. However, spokeswoman Anna Reimann warns that right-wing incidents are frequent in some areas. Simbach am Inn is one of them. This is also confirmed by the police headquarters in Lower Bavaria on request. Since 2015, swastika daubs and hate speech have been documented both at the home for asylum seekers and at other places in the Simbach.
The government of Lower Bavaria, which has been running the asylum seekers’ home in Simbach since May 2021, claims to have increased the security staff after the arson attack. However, this could not prevent swastikas and right-wing extremist slogans from being sprayed on the walls of the accommodation unnoticed just five weeks ago.