BGH partially overturns sentence after double murder in Völklingen

30 years after the double murder of a couple in Saarland, the case comes back before the Saarbrücken regional court following a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The BGH confirmed the guilty verdict against the now 71-year-old, but the sentence must be redetermined. The BGH in Karlsruhe announced that the case would be referred back to another jury chamber of the regional court. The SR had previously reported on the decision.

The Jordanian national was sentenced in June 2025 to 14 years in prison for two counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder. The court found it proven that he had killed the couple at home in Völklingen in 1996. To cover up the crime, he is said to have set fire to the living quarters. He accepted that seven other people in the building could die.

Because the chamber could not rule out that the drug addict had a reduced ability to control himself, it did not impose a life sentence. The investigators discovered the man through a DNA trace while regularly working on unsolved cases (cold cases).