Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Friday, July 15, 2022

German ex-soldier handed 5.5 years for neo-Nazi plot on political, Jewish targets

By AFP 15 July 2022, 1:00 pm 0 Edit

Franco Albrecht, a German army officer accused of planning a neo-Nazi attack, at a Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on July 15, 2022. (Boris ROESSLER / POOL / AFP)

Franco Albrecht, a German army officer accused of planning a neo-Nazi attack, at a Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany, on July 15, 2022. (Boris ROESSLER / POOL / AFP)

A German court sentences a former soldier to five and a half years in prison for plotting a far-right attack on senior politicians while posing as a Syrian refugee.

“The accused is guilty of planning a serious act of violence endangering the state,” presiding judge Christoph Koller says.

Defendant Franco Albrecht, a 33-year-old father of three, had been in the dock before the regional superior court in the western city of Frankfurt since May 2021.

The Bundeswehr lieutenant was found to have cited cabinet ministers, MPs and a prominent Jewish human rights activist among his potential targets.