A German court Monday sentenced a former skinhead to nearly seven years in jail over a 1991 arson attack on a shelter for asylum seekers that killed a Ghanaian man.
The attack in Saarlouis remained unsolved for decades as one of Germany's most prominent extremist cold cases before the probe was relaunched in 2020 after new evidence emerged.
The superior regional court in the western city of Koblenz ordered a jail term of six years and 10 months for the 52-year-old defendant identified only as Peter S. in line with German privacy rules.
Twenty years old and thus a minor at the time of the crime, he received a juvenile sentence for the charges which also included attempted murder and aggravated arson.
Presiding judge Konrad Leitges said the defendant, who listened to the verdict with a slightly bowed head, acted "based on his right-wing extremist beliefs, due to hatred of foreigners".
The court found that in the early hours of September 19, 1991, Peter S. poured petrol at the entrance to the refugees' accommodation before setting it alight.
The fire spread rapidly up the stairwell, engulfing 27-year-old Ghanaian Samuel Yeboah, who died the same day, after suffering serious burns and smoke inhalation.
"His death was excruciating and took a long, long time," Leitges said.
Two residents saved themselves by jumping out of the window, suffering broken bones. The remaining 18 reached safety uninjured.
Leitges said Peter S. came from a troubled home and "sought a replacement family" in the skinhead scene around Saarlouis from the early 1990s and "completely uncritically" took on its ideology.
Peter S. was arrested in April 2022 and had since been held in pre-trial detention. He had bragged about the attack to a witness at a barbecue in 2007 saying, "I did it and they never caught me."
When the witness learned in 2019 that a person had been killed in the fire, she came forward. The judge thanked her for her "courageous" testimony.
Prosecutors had demanded nine and a half years in prison while the defence team called for four and a half years.
When the trial opened in November 2022, left-wing groups held a rally against the infamous attack being forgotten.