Refugees sentenced for setting fire to homeless man in Berlin
One man sentenced to almost three years in jail after attack in station on Christmas Eve
The men gathered around a green wooden bench in Schönleinstrasse train station where one lit a tissue and laid it near the head of the sleeping man. Photograph: Meißner/ullstein bild via Getty Images
A 21-year-old refugee in Germany has received a two-year, nine-month prison sentence after setting fire to a homeless man sleeping on a Berlin underground station bench last Christmas Eve.
Only the intervention of other passengers ensured the fire was extinguished and the sleeping man, a 37-year-old from Poland, came to no harm. Five other men, one just 16, were given suspended sentences as accessories to the attack. With its sentencing, the court declined to follow the state prosecutor demand for a four-year attempted murder conviction.