German man gets nearly 6 years jail for extremist letters

A man previously found guilty of sending right-wing extremist mails to public figures in Germany was handed a sentence of five years and 10 months by a Frankfurt court on Thursday, reported dpa.

Many of the 116 messages sent were labelled as being from "NSU 2.0," a reference to the National Socialist Underground – a far-right terrorist group that was uncovered about 10 years ago.

The 54-year-old defendant from Berlin was tried among other things on incitement charges. He was arrested at his flat in the German capital in May last year.

The court on Thursday found him guilty of public incitement to commit crimes, incitement to hatred, disturbance of the public peace, use of anti-constitutional symbols, threats, an assault on a law enforcement officer and insults.

He had defended himself in court and asked for an acquittal.

He claimed that the threats found on his computer were from a chat group on the dark web, and were never to be taken seriously. "The NSU 2.0 project was just trolling at a high level."

His threatening letters were sent between August 2018 and March 2021 by email, fax or text message. The author regularly used the Nazi greeting "Heil Hitler" and called himself "SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer," a paramilitary rank in the former Nazi party.

Recipients were private individuals, public figures as well as authorities and institutions. The letters contained verbal insults or strong slurs against people with Turkish roots.