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| Europe |
| East German neo-Nazis face terror trial over refugee attacks |
| 2017-03-08 |
| [IsraelTimes] In 2016, there were some 3,500 attacks against refugees and asylum seekers in Germany; 10 each day, on average. Eight members of a German far-right group went on trial Tuesday over terrorism charges, accused of a series of attacks against refugees and political opponents. The so-called "Freital group" -- named after the members’ hometown outside Dresden, the capital of the eastern state of Saxony -- consists of seven men, aged 19 to 39, and a 28-year-old woman. Prosecutors say they staged five attacks with explosives between July and November 2015 targeting refugee housing and left-wing groups, causing two injuries. Charges against them include creating a terrorist group, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm. "They wanted to create a climate of fear and repression," federal prosecutors said last November as they prepared the case. Expecting a long trial, authorities spent five million euros ($5.3 million) fitting out a specially constructed courtroom, including on-site prison cells, in a structure on the outskirts of the city originally built to house refugees. With anti-migrant sentiment high across the former communist East, the hearings were being held under tight security. Dresden in particular has been a focal point for xenophobic groups as the home of the anti-Islam street movement Pegida. ’Large quantity’ of explosives Freital was already making headlines in the summer of 2015, as images of rage-fueled demonstrations against "criminal foreigners" and "asylum-seeking pigs" were beamed around the country. It was the peak of the refugee crisis, with Chancellor Angela Merkel ...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom... ’s September 4 decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees and Prosecutors say the defendants traveled to the Czech Republic and secured "a large quantity of explosives," planning to use them against refugee housing and the "homes, offices and vehicles" of local left-wingers. The charge sheet includes an attack on a car belonging to the leader of far-left party Die Linke in Freital on the night of July 27, 2015, in which no one was hurt. On the night of September 19, the group allegedly flung an explosive through the kitchen window of a refugee home. While the blast hurled glass fragments through the room, none of the residents was harmed because they were all asleep in other areas of the home. The following night, the group allegedly threw stones and home-made devices containing foul-smelling faracid at a social housing project, harming one of the inhabitants. 10 attacks a day The final attack came on the night of October 31, when three explosives were hurled at the windows of a refugee housing center. One person was harmed, suffering "multiple cuts" to the face. Police placed in durance vile Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages! the two suspected ringleaders of the "Freital Group," identified as Timo Schulz and Patrick Festing, at the end of 2015. Schulz was handed a one-year suspended sentence last year for attacking a car belonging to pro-refugee demonstrators with a baseball bat. The remainder of the group was arrested in April 2016, when Dresden prosecutors handed the terrorism case to federal Sherlocks, after being accused of dragging their feet. The defendants face sentences of up to life imprisonment if found guilty of attempted murder, and one to 10 years in prison for being a part of a terrorist group. Mindful of the notoriety that Freital has acquired over the attacks, the town’s Mayor Uwe Rumberg said: "One should not view the whole population and the whole city in the same light as the accused because of the incidents." "That would not be fair to many peace-loving residents here," he told regional broadcaster MDR. In 2016, there were about 3,500 attacks against refugees and asylum seekers in Germany -- 10 each day, on average -- harming 560 people including 43 children, interior ministry data show. Saxony, with just five percent of the German population, was the scene of 437 attacks last year, according to the RAA, a victims’ assistance organization, after 477 in 2015. Hungary's leaders calls migration the ‘Trojan horse’ of terrorism “Migration is the Trojan wooden horse of terrorism,” Orban said at a swearing-in ceremony for a new group of border guards, called “border hunters” by the government. “The people that come to us don’t want to live according to our culture and customs but according to their own — at European standards of living.” As Orban was speaking to the 462 new border guards, lawmakers from his governing Fidesz party and the far-right Jobbik party approved new rules which further limit the rights of asylum seekers and give police more power to send migrants back to Serbia. During a state of emergency due to migration, recently extended until Sept. 7, all asylum seekers will kept at camps built from shipping containers on the border with Serbia until a final decision is made on their asylum requests. The decision is in line with Hungary’s intention to close all other refugee reception centers around the country, some of which were shut last year. Police will also be allowed to return to the Serbian border any migrants caught anywhere in the country who cannot prove their legal right to be in Hungary. Since July 5, only migrants found within 8 kilometers (miles) of the border could be sent back to Serbia. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |