While a drunk homeless man is sleeping in front of a toilet facility in Altona train station, his jacket sleeve suddenly catches fire. "I woke up because it was getting warm," said the 34-year-old on Wednesday as a witness before the Hamburg Regional Court. He pulled the burning sweater over his head and extinguished the flames with beer. The accused in the trial is a 35-year-old who prosecutors accuse of attempted murder.
On June 13, he is said to have poured a flammable liquid over the sleeve of the witness's jacket and set it on fire. The 34-year-old victim suffered painful burns on his upper right arm, the prosecutor said. An unknown accomplice is said to have filmed the incident with his cell phone. The video, which is said to have been found on the accused's cell phone, is considered important evidence.
"It wasn't that bad," the homeless man who was burned said as a witness. Only his sweater burned. He slept in front of the toilet facility because there is a heater there. "Then I woke up and burned," said the 34-year-old German. He threw the burnt sweater in the corner and went to get something to drink. Before that, he looked around: "There was nobody there."
Victim friends with the accused?
The trained metalworker said he was friends with the accused. At best, they would have had a “normal buddy fight” but never fought. He didn't even know that his friend was on trial for the matter. Before his testimony he had drunk maybe 20 "shots", he said when asked by the judge. As he left the courtroom, the witness shook hands with the smiling defendant.
However, the 35-year-old accused is said to have set fire to the sleeping bag of another homeless person after a dispute at Altona train station just under a month before the crime. The owner of the sleeping bag had gone away. When he returned, the defendant hit him in the face with the palm of his hand, the prosecutor said. The 35-year-old is said to have punched a third homeless person in the face after a dispute at the main train station. According to the court press office, the Polish defendant lived on the streets himself until his arrest on June 24 and was addicted to alcohol. After reading the indictment, the defense attorney said his client would not comment on the allegations for the time being.
The court cannot hear the two other alleged victims of the accused. According to the presiding judge, the man whose sleeping bag is said to have burned died in a homeless shelter in Lübeck. Another man whom the accused is said to have hit in the face with his fist cannot be found by the court.
