On January 25, a house partly inhabited by refugees caught fire. A Syrian woman is injured and dies in hospital in early February. As of this Monday, the police have failed to report the woman’s death. A journalist accuses authorities and the media of ignorance.
According to the police, a 43-year-old resident died in the fire in a residential building that partly serves as accommodation for refugees. The incident happened at the end of January. The death was only confirmed by the police and the Attorney General in a statement on Monday. The woman suffered injuries from the fire, which she succumbed to on February 10.
The Berlin Senator for Integration, Katja Kipping, wrote in a post on Twitter that the dead woman was a Syrian named Yazy Almiah, who left behind six children. At the request of ntv.de, the Berlin police could not confirm the nationality or the identity of the woman. So far there is no evidence of a political motive, said a police spokesman.
The fire broke out on January 25 in an apartment building in the French-Buchholz district of Berlin. Flames engulfed the stairwell, police said. The fire brigade was finally able to extinguish the fire. Two residents suffered smoke inhalation. The building was initially uninhabitable after the incident.
According to the “Tagesspiegel” and the “Spiegel”, Almiah was among the injured and died a few weeks later in the Charité. Her husband and their six children were therefore able to return to the apartment building after being temporarily accommodated in another accommodation.
The police initially investigated arson, but after Almiah’s death the investigation was expanded to include arson resulting in death. The case received national attention due to several tweets by journalist Tarek Baé last weekend. He accused the media, politicians and the police of ignorance, even though the case may have involved a racist murder. According to Baé, he is in contact with Almiah’s family and is collecting donations for the relatives.
Baé is particularly outraged that there has been no reporting of Almiah’s death for many days. Typically, police issue separate notices when people die after a fire or other incident if the death occurs days later. In Almiah’s case, this only happened on Monday.
