In September 1991, asylum seeker Samuel Yeboah died after an arson attack on an asylum seekers’ home in Saarlouis. After a first conviction in the fall, a second man now has to stand trial
It took a long time, even a very long time: the arson attack on an asylum seekers’ home in Saarlouis had not been legally dealt with for decades. After the crime in September 1991, the law enforcement authorities in Saarland stopped the investigation comparatively quickly – without results.
Critics said it was stopped too quickly – after all, there was one fatality at the time. 27-year-old Samuel Yeboah from Ghana suffered severe burns and smoke inhalation from the fire. He died a few hours after the crime.
First judgment in 2023
In 2019, there was new movement in the supposedly closed case. A woman contacted the authorities at that time. She reported that Peter S., a right-wing extremist from Saarlouis, claimed to her at a barbecue party in 2007 that he had set the fire in 1991. It was only years later that she understood the significance of the statement.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe took over the investigation and ultimately charged Peter S. Because there is no statute of limitations on murder, it was still possible even after such a long time. In autumn 2023, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court sentenced him to six years and ten months in prison for, among other things, murder and particularly serious arson.
A youth sentence, because at the time the crime was committed, Peter S. was only 20 years old, so legally speaking he was an adolescent. In 1991, according to the court’s conviction, he doused a wooden staircase in the asylum seekers’ home with gasoline and set it on fire. Knowing that there are people in the building.
More charges
The criminal proceedings in Koblenz have brought another person into the focus of investigators: Peter St. He was the head of the skinhead scene in Saarlouis at the time. According to the evidence taken in the trial against his namesake Peter S., he was with him on the day of the crime. They drank together in a bar and talked about the right-wing extremist riots in Hoyerswerda. This was reported in the media on those days.
“Something like that should burn here,” was Peter St.’s comment at the time. This statement in turn “influenced and strengthened” Peter S. in his decision to set the fire in the asylum seekers’ home, as the Federal Prosecutor General puts it.
He has therefore charged Peter St. with aiding and abetting murder and aiding and abetting attempted murder. As in the first case, the trial will take place before the Koblenz Higher Regional Court. Dates are scheduled until the summer.