The public prosecutor’s office in Dresden has filed charges against four Iraqis (25, 25, 26 and 26 years) at the Pirna district court – lay judges.
The accused are accused of building a railing on July 17, 2022 between 2:50 p.m. and 6:40 p.m. in the core zone of the Saxon Switzerland National Park near the »Kanapee« viewpoint, Wehlener Weg, 01824 Rathen established official hiking trail and used two shisha pipes there for several hours. For this purpose, the accused are said to have ignited at least six pieces of coal with an open flame.
One of the four suspects (26 years) is charged with intentional arson. He is accused of throwing a total of three not yet fully extinguished pieces of charcoal from the shisha pipes down the wooded slope around 5:30 p.m. Due to the drought that had lasted for days at this time, the daily temperature of around 30°C and the forest fire danger level III, it can be assumed that the accused was aware that the pieces of coal would ignite the forest floor and in particular the vegetation growing there, and that this would lead to a rapid fire and uncontrolled spread of fire.
The other three suspects are guilty of negligent arson through omission. They are accused of realizing that one of the three pieces of coal they had thrown away could no longer be wetted with water. Nevertheless, they are said to have left the national park around 6:40 p.m. without calling for help. As a result, the foreseeable and avoidable result was that the embers of at least one of the pieces of coal that had been thrown down initially spread to the forest floor and continued to smolder there for several hours. The resulting smoldering fire developed into an open fire when it reached the surface, which ignited the wood growing below the cliff edge and, in particular, the humus-rich forest floor. As a result, a forest area of around 2,500 square meters in the national park caught fire. If hazard prevention measures had been initiated in good time, all of these consequences could have been prevented with a probability bordering on certainty.
This caused unquantifiable damage to the original and therefore valuable forest of the Saxon Switzerland National Park. The fire brigade’s extinguishing work took several days due to the repeated flaring up of embers. This resulted in costs of over 24,000 euros.
One of the accused (25 years) has a minor and no relevant criminal record. The other suspects have no previous convictions. Some of the accused have confessed. You are not in custody because there are no grounds for detention under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The district court of Pirna will now decide on the opening of the main proceedings and the admission of the indictment.
A date for the main hearing is set by the district court of Pirna.
2023-08-08 10:40:02
#Forest #fire #Saxon #Switzerland #July #17th
