Prison sentence imposed

Tyrolean (26) set fire in his own home

The Tyrolean had to sit before a panel of lay judges led by Judge Paul Menardi.

(Bild: Markus Stegmayr, Krone KREATIV)

A 26-year-old Tyrolean man had to stand trial in court on Thursday for allegedly setting fire to a residential building in the middle of Innsbruck and causing enormous damage. The man denied everything, but was nevertheless convicted.

"It wasn't me", a 26-year-old man repeatedly claimed in front of the Innsbruck regional court. In February 2023, the man allegedly set fire to several boxes in a residential building in the middle of the Tyrolean capital, where he was also registered, and set fire to a cellar compartment. The resulting property damage: around 93,000 euros!

Circumstantial evidence against the accused
Evidence heavily incriminated the accused. On the day of the fire, for example, he had made an emergency call to the fire department, which was deliberately "intended to keep the firefighters busy in a different way", as the judge put it.

Although the 26-year-old admitted that he could be heard on the recording, he maintained that he was innocent. In addition, a police officer questioned as a witness, who was in the defendant's apartment on the night of the fire, claimed to have noticed the smell of smoke on the man's clothes and traces of soot.

Additional sentence imposed
The panel of lay assessors imposed an additional sentence of two years on the Tyrolean with reference to another case.