Photo: Freiwillige Feuerwehr Menden
As the gaunt defendant aged 24 steps through the door, the victim’s mother screams at him, tears of despair streaming down her face: ‘Why did you do this to my Malak?’ she shouts repeatedly in Syrian.
Shortly afterwards, public prosecutor Milena Stoschek explains what she means by this. Hamza A. (24) is said to have doused the woman’s daughter ( aged 17) with petrol and set her on fire – Malak died in hospital 17 days after the agonising attack.
According to the indictment, the Syrian drove to the family in Menden ( North Rhine-Westphalia) on March 22 with four five-litre canisters; the girl’s older sister, Nahed A., was his former fiancée. Malak opened the front door at 10.05 p.m. – completely ‘helpless and defenceless’ according to Stoschek: ‘She was so engulfed by the fire that her entire body was in flames.’ Around 100 firefighters were eventually able to extinguish the fire in the apartment block. A rescue helicopter was unable to arrive as the weather was too bad. An ambulance took Malak to a specialised clinic in Dortmund. Six other people suffered minor injuries.
The accused is said to have committed the horrific crime because he could not cope with the separation from his sister and wanted to bring ‘suffering to her family’. The prosecutor sees four elements of murder as having been realised – malice, cruelty, dangerous means and base motives. She also charged him with arson causing death, assault and causing an explosion.
It was apparently not the first time that Hamza A. had been violent. In 2023, he allegedly tied up his fiancée Nahed and choked her to unconsciousness.
The accused is facing a life sentence. His defence lawyer Nils Schiering announced that his client would make a full statement on the allegations on the next day of the trial. He said: ‘My client is not the evil firebug that he is portrayed as in the indictment.’
Tödliche Feuer-Attacke: Syrer trifft Mutter des Opfers im Gericht | Regional | BILD.de