Wuppertal (dpa / lnw) - Six months after a devastating fire in Wuppertal with millions in damage, the suspected arsonist has retracted his confession. He did not set the fire, he asserted on Friday at the start of the trial before the Wuppertal district court.
The house with 21 tenants is still uninhabitable. The flames had spread to a neighboring house. Several people had to be rescued from the smoke-filled house with breathing hoods.
During the extinguishing work, the now 32-year-old resident of the apartment building had confessed to having set the house on fire on purpose. According to witnesses, the multiple criminal had announced this loudly in front of the house.
The passers-by called the police and the man again admitted to the officers that he had started the fire on purpose. In addition, the accused is said to have announced to a neighbor before the fire that he wanted to burn down the house.
"I have nothing to do with the fire. I lied then, I was just too drunk," said the 32-year-old on Friday. He couldn't remember much from the day of the fire because he was too drunk.
When the public prosecutor asked how he could rule out being the perpetrator if he had no memory, the man asserted: "It wasn't me one hundred percent."
At the time of the crime, the accused should have had about 3.2 per thousand alcohol in the blood, the judge calculated. However, no traces of fire accelerants were found on either his hands or his clothing.
An expert had ruled out a technical defect as the cause of the fire and classified arson as probable. The process continues.
