From the BZ editorial team
New Year’s Eve 2022 ended fatally. A man (37) was killed in the explosion of fireworks, another (39) was critically injured.
► About a year and a half after the firecracker madness in Hennef near Bonn, a man (21) from Berlin is accused. Accusation: negligent homicide!
The Berlin public prosecutor’s office is convinced that between November 2021 and December 22, 2022, the accused engaged in a brisk trade in illegal pyrotechnics on social networks.
He is said to have sold fireworks to a total of 158 people after orders, a spokesman for the authorities said on Monday. Among them were “ball bombs”.
As the police reported after the terrible incident in the Hennef district of Hüchel (376 inhabitants), the two men had celebrated the turn of the year with a group of ten. When the firecrackers bought online were ignited shortly after midnight, disaster struck.
Despite attempts to revive him, the 37-year-old died on the spot from severe facial injuries, and his friend was saved in hospital.
According to the indictment, it was foreseeable for the accused that such an accident could happen. She also accuses the 21-year-old of negligent bodily harm, commercial explosives trading and causing an explosive explosion. Because he is said to have used the firecrackers at the end of 2021 to blow up a cigarette machine in Berlin.
During a search in March 2023, according to the public prosecutor, around 23 kilograms of illegal pyrotechnics that had not yet been sold were found on the accused in addition to weapons and drugs. He faces up to five years in prison.