The trial of a firefighter accused of setting fire to a refugee shelter in October 2022 began on Wednesday at the district court in Schwerin. In addition, he is said to have previously set a number of other fires. The public prosecutor's office accuses the 32-year-old defendant of aggravated arson in one and arson in five other cases. The accused is a member of the volunteer fire brigade and a plant fire brigade. If convicted, he faces up to ten years in prison. On Wednesday, the accused, who had previously denied responsibility for the crimes and is in custody, did not want to comment on the allegations.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Northern Germany and Scandinavia, based in Hamburg.

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In October of last year, the accused is said to have set fire to the thatched roof of a former hotel in the district of Nordwestmecklenburg, where refugees were accommodated at the time, with an accelerant. As a result, the building burned to the ground, according to the prosecutor's office. 14 refugees from Ukraine and three Red Cross employees who were in the building at the time were able to leave it unharmed. According to the public prosecutor's office, the building suffered damage of almost nine million euros.

"Even if the fire object served as accommodation for refugees at the time of the crime, further investigations have not revealed any evidence of a politically motivated act," the public prosecutor's office said before the start of the trial. A connection with a swastika, which had been placed on an entrance sign of the accommodation before the fact, could not be proven.

The accused is also accused of setting fires in a wooded area three times in 2022, setting fire to a carport and setting fire to a straw heap consisting of around 700 bales of straw on a farmland. In the case of 13 other fires in the area, the investigations are still ongoing. According to the public prosecutor's office, in eleven investigations, proof of the crime could not be provided due to a lack of objective evidence.