German gets suspended sentence for attack on refugee shelter

BERLIN – A court has handed a 21-year-old German man a two-year suspended sentence and 200 hours of community service for an arson attack on a building housing child refugees.

The Potsdam regional court convicted the defendant Thursday of attempted murder, attempted serious arson and property damage for the October 2016 attack in Jueterbog, south of Berlin.

Nobody was injured.

Judges concluded the man, who wasn’t named due to German privacy rules, was motivated by a hatred of foreigners and wanted to impress his father.

The 41-year-old father, who allegedly supplied fuel used in the attack, is being tried separately.

The verdict was delivered on the 25th anniversary of a notorious arson attack in the northern town of Moelln, in which neo-Nazis killed three people of Turkish origin.