Zimba family petrol bombed whilst they were in their house in Germany

Three people who petrol bombed a building housing a Zimbabwean family in Germany have been given stiff sentences.The two men and a woman made a gasoline bomb, drove to the apartment and then hurled the bomb through a window.

 The judge in the case said all three were motivated by neo-Nazi beliefs.Dismissing the defense’s argument that the two men were drunk and the young woman was a politically naïve person who just drove the car, Judge Wolfgang Rosenbusch in Hanover attributed their actions to radical right-wing views.

“The underpinning for their action was racial hatred informed by National Socialism,” the judge said.

The court sentenced the 31-year-old leader of the group to eight years in jail, and his 25-year-old accomplice, who as a local firefighter worked to put out the fire he had helped start, to seven years. The 24-year-old woman received a prison sentence of four and a half years.

Zimba family petrol bombed whilst they were in their house in Germany

All three had expressed regret for their actions on the night of the episode last August in Salzhemmendorf, their hometown. The only reason no one was hurt was that an 11-year-old boy who usually slept in the room that was firebombed had taken his mattress and slept next to his Zimbabwean mother and siblings that night.

The judge said that all three of the accused were aware that their actions could have been deadly, but that they went ahead with the arson attack.