A Hamburg court has convicted and sentenced seven members and one supporter of the right-wing extremist group “Last Defense Wave” to prison on charges including attempted murder, arson and aggravated assault, reports infohub.kz.
The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court also found the defendants guilty of being members or supporters of a terrorist organization. They were found to have planned and carried out arson and bomb attacks on asylum seeker shelters and left-wing facilities, as well as engaged in so-called “pedo-hunting” — hunting down people they believed to be pedophiles.
The young men, who were between 14 and 21 years old at the time, were tried under Germany’s juvenile criminal law and given sentences ranging from one and a half to five years in prison. The sentence for the youngest defendant — one and a half years — was suspended, according to Germany’s dpa news agency. The rulings can still be appealed.
According to the indictment, it was only by chance that residents of a cultural center in Altdöbern in the eastern state of Brandenburg were not injured during an arson attack by the group in October 2024. The fire completely destroyed the building.
During an attack on an asylum seeker shelter in Schmölln in the eastern state of Thuringia in January 2024, two members of the group unsuccessfully attempted to set the building on fire using pyrotechnics. They also scrawled swastikas and slogans such as “foreigners out” on the facility’s facade.
According to the indictment, three members of the group had also planned an arson attack on an asylum seeker shelter in Senftenberg in Brandenburg, but the attack was apparently prevented thanks to tips from a reporting team.
In June, two more teenagers were detained in Thuringia on suspicion of membership in the “Last Defense Wave” group, dpa reported.