Terror trial in Frankfurt: Franco A. sentenced to five and a half years in prison

The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court has sentenced former Bundeswehr soldier Franco A. to five and a half years in prison for planning an attack, weapons offenses and fraud.

"The accused is guilty of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state," said the presiding judge of the State Protection Senate, Christoph Koller, on Friday when the verdict was announced.

The case also made waves beyond the proceedings.

The representative of the federal prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of six years and three months in June.

Franco A. is "a right-wing extremist terrorist" who planned attacks on the lives of high-ranking politicians or public figures, said the prosecutor.

Last week, however, the defense attorneys demanded acquittal for the main charge - the preparation of a criminal offense endangering the state - and fines or suspended sentences for the other charges.

Franco A. was arrested at Vienna Airport in February 2017 when he tried to get a loaded pistol from a hiding place in an airport toilet.

Where the weapon came from and what he planned to do with it is still unclear.

After his arrest, it also turned out that he had assumed the identity of a Syrian refugee - despite his lack of Arabic knowledge.

According to his own statements, he wanted to use the false identity to uncover abuses in the asylum procedure.

In their indictment, however, the federal prosecutor assumed that he wanted to cast suspicion on Syrian refugees after crimes had been committed.

Franco A. denies the allegations, but admitted to having stockpiled several weapons and ammunition in case of a collapse of public order in Germany.

He has been in pre-trial detention again since February, having been released at the beginning of the trial.

According to the indictment, the accused is said to have planned, among other things, an attack on the founder of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Anetta Kahane.

He had also visited the foundation's office and underground car park.

The then Minister of Justice Heiko Maas (SPD) and the Vice-President of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth (Greens), were also named as possible targets in the indictment.

The negotiation of the alleged refugee had revealed dark things.

After the process, gaps and unanswered questions remain

The process showed "the ability of the rule of law to act against right-wing terrorists and their murderous attack plans," said the Greens' domestic politician Marcel Emmerich of the German Press Agency.

However, gaps and unanswered questions remained.

"The numerous weapons, the death lists and the close contact with other right-wing extremists deep into the ethnic scene suggest that Franco A. was not a confused individual perpetrator, but part of a right-wing extremist and violent group." Emmerich urged further investigations.

The Amadeu Antonio Foundation had hoped for a "deterrent" verdict.

"A conviction in this case would be an urgently needed signal that threats from right-wing extremists and the protection of civil society activists are taken seriously by the state," said Timo Reinfrank, Managing Director of the foundation.

The case of Franco A. unites right-wing extremist elite soldiers, right-wing chat groups, the prepper movement and connections to the AfD, according to a statement before the verdict was announced.

"Everything that characterizes right-wing terrorism in Germany culminates in it, so it must not be trivialized in individual cases."

The foundation called for the information policy of the security authorities towards those affected by lists of enemies and attack plans to be urgently improved and lead to concrete protective measures that are also organized and financed by the state.

During the investigation into the Franco A. case, the police came across chat groups in which right-wing extremist content was sometimes shared.

This resulted in further investigations, for example in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The military counter-intelligence service, which is responsible, among other things, for ensuring that no extremists work in the Bundeswehr and thus have access to weapons, has been reformed.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) was also criticized at the time, with Franco A. passing through as a Syrian despite his lack of language skills.