Verdict: Prison sentences for terrorists from "brown nurseries"

Seven young members and one supporter of the far-right group "Last Line of Defense" have been sentenced to between one-and-a-half and five years in prison. The State Protection Senate of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court also determined that the group was an internal terrorist organization, said presiding Judge Ulrike Taeubner.

The indictments against the defendants, aged between 14 and 21 at the time of the crimes, included attempted murder, arson, and dangerous bodily injury. The verdicts are not yet final and can be appealed within a week. The group allegedly carried out and planned arson attacks on asylum seeker homes and left-wing facilities in Brandenburg and Thuringia, as well as alleged "pedo-hunting" of individuals they considered pedophiles.

A house fire in Altdöbern, Brandenburg, in October 2024 only narrowly missed injuring those inside. Two members attempted to set fire to an asylum seeker shelter in Schmölln, Thuringia, but were unsuccessful. A bomb plot against an asylum seeker shelter in Brandenburg was thwarted due to reporting. The juvenile or young adults defendants were tried under youth law.

The prison term for the youngest defendant, a 15-year-old from Hesse, was set to be served under supervision. The arrest warrant for a 17-year-old from Brandenburg, who had served more than half of his two-year-and-four-month sentence in pre-trial detention, was lifted. Public interest was excluded from the trial due to the young age of the defendants, and both the prosecution and defense arguments were heard behind closed doors.

Four of the convicted remain minors, alongside three 17-year-olds from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Brandenburg, two from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Thuringia, and two from Saxony and Thuringia. All defendants reportedly had a difficult childhood, including abuse, and had come into contact with right-wing ideologies. Judge Taeubner called the term "brown children's rooms" apt.

They were described as having come from a family environment with right-wing views. The court heard that they considered themselves as the last defense of Germany and committed the most serious crimes, but that they were not suitable for defending a peaceful society. The group called itself the last defense of Germany and acted like a terrorist organization with juvenile and unprofessional conduct.

The judge stated that they were not a truly dangerous terrorist organization but acted very immaturely. The judge noted that they filmed their own attacks and used normal mobile phones, making it easy for investigators to identify them. The prosecutors also stated that they were surprised by the young age of the terrorists, as it was unusual for the highest prosecution authority to address such an issue in such a young group.

The investigations revealed that a large number of young people and very young adults had become involved in the group, often radicalizing quickly over the internet. "Hence, the eight convicted are, so to speak, only the tip of the iceberg," said prosecutor Stefan Biehl. Large-scale raids in May 2023 led to the arrest of five of the convicted in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, and Hesse, with three others already in pre-trial detention.

Additional searches had taken place in Saxony and Thuringia prior to the trial. Two more juveniles were detained in Thuringia just days after the trial began as suspects in the group.