FRANKFURT – In one of Germany’s most spectacular terrorism trials, a military officer posing as a Syrian refugee was sentenced Friday to five and a half years in prison for his role in a far-right terrorist plot to assassinate prominent public figures. the hope of overthrowing the democratic order.
The case of First Lieutenant Franco A., whose last name was abbreviated by authorities in accordance with German privacy laws, shocked the country when he was arrested five years ago and has fueled the country’s creeping threat of far-right infiltration into the military and police. .
Franco A. has been convicted of plotting terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and fraud for attempting to impersonate a refugee, although three months of his sentence is considered served because he has been in custody since he was arrested earlier this year. year.
He was caught in 2017 trying to collect a loaded gun he had hidden in a bathroom at Vienna airport. His fingerprints later revealed his second, false identity as a Syrian refugee, setting alarm bells ringing and an investigation that would encompass three countries and multiple intelligence agencies.
Prosecutors have accused him of planning one or more murders using his false Syrian identity with the intent of fueling growing fears of immigration into Germany and provoking a national crisis.
The case emerged as another warning for a country that has spent decades atoning for its Nazi past, but at the same time has a track record of failing to fully address far-right extremism and terrorism.
Franco A. maintained his innocence to the end, but a number of revelations over the course of the 13-month trial hardened the case against him.
A series of anti-Semitic and racist audio memos he recorded of himself, some fantasizing about “killing” political enemies and applauding anyone who “destroys” the state, were played in court, leaving little doubt about the “hardened far-right “mindset” prosecutors called his political motive.
Franco A. was accused by prosecutors of possessing more than 1,000 cartridges, four rifles and about 50 explosives, some of which had been stolen from military bases where he was stationed, but slipped early in the trial and acknowledged that he had weapons in his possession. owned. .
“The possession and acquisition have taken place,” he said, though he declined to say where he got the weapons, including a G3 assault rifle, or where he disposed of them. To this day they have not been found.
Franco A. began the trial as a free man, having been released from pre-trial detention three and a half years before the opening. But in a dramatic scene at a metro stop in February, Franco A. was taken back into custody after traveling to a fellow soldier’s home and picking up a shopping bag full of Nazi memorabilia.