A German court on Friday sentenced a former German army officer to five-and-a-half years in prison for planning far-right terrorist attacks against politicians and public figures he believed were “refugee-friendly” while trying to impersonating a Syrian refugee.
“The accused is guilty of planning a serious act of violence endangering the state,” said Judge Christoph Koller.
The 33-year-old former soldier, identified as Franco A., was arrested in February 2017 at Vienna airport as he was preparing to retrieve a loaded pistol he had hidden in a toilet. So far, it has not been possible to clarify the origin of the weapon or what he planned to do with it.
The case was the trigger for a scandal that hit the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) and led to a series of investigations into the presence of right-wing extremists in the country’s ranks, in addition to the removal of military personnel. The trial provoked even more revulsion after information emerged that Franco A. was storing Nazi memorabilia at the barracks, including a swastika-encrusted rifle case.
After the arrest, it was also revealed that Franco A. had assumed the identity of a Syrian refugee, despite not speaking Arabic. He said he sought to denounce irregularities in the asylum procedure in Germany. The Prosecutor’s Office, in turn, argued that the accused was trying to make the suspicions about the attacks he planned to commit fall on foreigners.
As Franco A. received financial support as an alleged refugee, he was also convicted of fraud. “The defendant has an extreme right-wing, ethnic-nationalist and racist attitude that has been consolidated for years,” Judge Koller said in justifying the sentence.
The prosecutor in the case had asked for a six-and-a-half-year sentence, calling the former officer a “far-right terrorist” who planned attacks against politicians and other high-ranking public figures.
According to the prosecutor, among the possible victims of the planned attacks were the then Minister of Justice Heiko Maas, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the then Vice-President of Parliament (Bundestag), Claudia Roth, of the Green Party, as well as Anetta Kahane, then president of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, dedicated to the fight against racism.
The defense, in turn, announced that it will appeal the sentence. Before, he had asked for the acquittal of the main charge – the preparation of a crime against the security of the State – and fines or parole for the others.
Franco A. denied the accusations, but admitted to having saved several weapons and ammunition to, according to him, use in case public order collapsed in Germany.
