Franco A. has rarely been so brief.

Again and again, the accused had made excessive statements in this process, which had been running for 14 months, and he repeatedly tried to discuss with the presiding judge.

But now, in the last word he is entitled to, the thirty-three-year-old confines himself to a few dry sentences.

Julian Staib

Political correspondent for Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland based in Wiesbaden.

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Matthew Trautsch

Coordination report Rhein-Main.

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He learned a lot during the proceedings before the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Frankfurt, he says.

It was painful experiences, partly due to his own behavior.

He also played a part in the fact that the process was so long, but without intending to.

In the future, as a house husband, he wants to take care of his three small children.

They are in a phase in which they need a "safe haven".

In Frankfurt, an extraordinary process is coming to an end.

At the peak of the refugee crisis, the Bundeswehr soldier Franco A. smeared shoe cream on his face and passed himself off to the police station in his hometown of Offenbach as a Syrian named David Benjamin seeking protection.

The police officers referred him kindly to the initial reception center in Giessen.

A. did not speak Arabic;

the explanation he later gave to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees was outrageous: As a Jewish Syrian, he unfortunately only spoke French.

He got away with it.

The Bundeswehr officer received protection as an alleged refugee and lived a double life for fifteen months: From time to time he put on the refugee clothes that he carried in a backpack, drove to the asylum center in Bavaria and collected social benefits - and then again to the barracks in Strasbourg to pursue his employment as a Bundeswehr soldier.

A right-wing extremist who hoarded weapons and ammunition

In doing so, A. revealed the absurdities of German refugee policy at a time when this country was hopelessly overwhelmed with taking in those seeking protection.

A kind of Günter Wallraff of the refugee crisis - that's the picture that his two defenders like to paint of him.

It also appears in the pleadings that they hold on Friday.

A. was not the only one who had doubts about the federal government's "so-called refugee policy" in 2015, says lawyer Moritz Schmitt-Fricke.

A majority of the population was against the opening of the border, and there were great concerns, especially in the security authorities.

With a kind of Köpenickiade, A. wanted to document the “many thousands of breaches of the law by the federal government”, and wanted to make the “failure of the federal government visible to everyone”.

"Without state injustice, there would have been no Franco A. case."

But this picture is incomplete, even misleading.

Because there is also another story about A.

It is that of a right-wing extremist who hoarded weapons and ammunition and, according to the prosecution, planned a terrorist attack to protect Germany from supposed foreign invaders.

The original indictment by the federal prosecutor's office combined both allegations.

A. had therefore only played the role of the refugee in order to blame a Syrian for a terrorist attack.

However, no evidence of this was found during the trial.

The federal prosecutor's office finally no longer maintained the accusation.