Final judgment

Eight counts of attempted murder: 30 years in prison for Syrian man

The damage to the building caused by the arson amounts to over 800,000 euros.

(Bild: Feuerwehr Liezen-Stadt)

It was mainly the malice that shocked. In the middle of the night in March of this year, two Syrians set fire to their barbershop in Liezen (Styria) in order to collect the insurance money. The fact that a family of eight was sleeping above the store apparently didn't matter to them. 

Back in August, the two hairdressers (aged 19 and 39) were sentenced to twelve and 18 years in prison by a jury in Leoben. At the time, the family described their desperation and fear of death when they were trapped by the flames in their pyjamas in the middle of the night.

The 39-year-old denied it in court. The 19-year-old, who was filmed at the scene, confessed. And admitted that they had both been short of money and had hoped for the 30,000 euro insurance sum.

At the time, a family member used his feet to kick in the wall to a neighbor's house, which, as the prosecutor pointed out, had fortunately been built using drywall construction. "We thought we were going to die," the Styrians recounted. "But the defendants didn't care at all," said public prosecutor Andreas Petritsch. Even today, the victims still suffer from massive anxiety.

They have resigned themselves to the fact that people died in the blaze.

Die vorsitzende Richterin, Senatspräsidentin Karin Kohlroser, Oberlandesgericht Graz

19-year-old took sole responsibility
At the appeal hearing at the Higher Regional Court in Graz on Tuesday, the young Syrian suddenly - apparently massively intimidated - took all the blame on himself. "He didn't know anything, it was just my idea. He just led me there", the 19-year-old claimed. His accomplice just mumbled with his head down, but quite emotionlessly: "I apologize."

The members of the senate did not believe the assurances and although the public prosecutor's office demanded a higher sentence and the 39-year-old a reduced sentence, the judges left it at the sanctions imposed. "We consider a sentence of ten to 20 years for the younger man and ten to 20 years or life imprisonment for the older man to be sufficient."

Senate President Karin Kohlroser once again emphasized the insidiousness because the fire was set at 1 am. And the criminal energy required to do so, as well as the ignorance of the legal value of human life. "They resigned themselves to the fact that people would die in the blaze." The sentences - a total of 30 years in prison - are now final.