The former NPD politician Maik Schneider and two other men have to pay damages amounting to almost 2.9 million euros. They set fire to a gym in Nauen – after which the insurance company reclaimed the costs.
Almost six years after the arson attack on a planned refugee accommodation in Nauen, Brandenburg, the Potsdam district court sentenced the former NPD politician Maik Schneider and two accomplices to pay damages amounting to almost 2.9 million euros. This was announced by a court spokeswoman on Tuesday.
In the civil case, the Ostdeutsche Kommunalversicherung had claimed the cost of rebuilding the hall. The insurer’s claim can be enforced over the next 30 years. According to the court, the three perpetrators are jointly and severally liable. The full amount can thus be collected from each individual.
At the end of July, the insurance company rejected the suggestion made by one of the perpetrators to pay a total of 10,000 euros in small installments. A legally binding so-called default judgment had already been issued against one of the perpetrators.
The court justified its decision on Tuesday with the fact that the three men had been found guilty in criminal proceedings of having deliberately set the hall on fire. Since the building was later rebuilt, the insurance company is entitled to compensation for the costs incurred.
In the attack in August 2015, the sports hall of a school, which was intended as an emergency shelter for refugees, was completely destroyed. Schneider was sentenced for the first time in 2017 to a total of nine and a half years in prison for this and for other offenses. However, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned the judgment.
In a second trial, Schneider received a total sentence of seven years and nine months in prison in 2019. The BGH largely confirmed this judgment in February 2021, but lifted the entire sentence. Most recently, Schneider was sentenced to eight years and three months in prison by the Potsdam Regional Court in mid-August. Other defendants received suspended sentences.
Broadcast: Brandenburg aktuell, 08/24/2021, 7:30 p.m.