Two German converts to Islam and two Turks were found guilty Thursday of plotting a thwarted attack that a judge said could have killed large numbers of US soldiers and civilians in “a terrible bloodbath.”
The two Turkish citizens and two Germans received reduced sentences ranging from five to 12 years due to their willingness to detail in wide-reaching confessions how they were recruited, trained and convinced to carry out the attack by the radical Islamic Jihad Union.
The case rattled the public in Germany, which has not seen a large-scale terror attack, and exposed the allure of Islamic extremism to disillusioned young people in the West
“Increasingly, violent Islam has a devastating pull over young people in our society,” Judge Ottmar Breidling said in his ruling, calling international terrorism “the scourge of our time.”
“This case has shown with frightening clarity what acts young people who are filled with hatred, blinded and seduced by wrong-headed ideas of jihad are prepared and able to carry out,” he said.
The four men operated as a German cell of the radical Islamic Jihad Union, a group the US State Department has said has ties to Osama bin Laden and fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar. They plotted to attack US soldiers and citizens at facilities including the US Air Force’s Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the Duesseldorf State Court found.
Had they succeeded, “there would have been a terrible bloodbath with an incredibly high of number of dead and injured, above all members of the US army, but also civilians,” Breidling said.
Defendants Fritz Gelowicz, 30, and Daniel Schneider, 24, both German converts to Islam, were convicted of membership in a terrorist organization along with Turkish citizen Adem Yilmaz, 31.
Attila Selek, a 25-year-old Turkish citizen, was convicted of the lesser charge of supporting a terrorist organization.
All four also were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and preparing an explosive device with the power equivalent to 410kg of TNT.
Their confessions, which filled 1,700 pages, played a role in getting them relatively mild sentences, Breidling said. Gelowicz and Schneider were sentenced to 12 years in prison, Yilmaz to 11 years and Selek five.
Schneider, who was also convicted of attempted murder related to a confrontation with a police officer when he was arrested, faced life in prison. Gelowicz and Yilmaz had faced a possible 15 years, and Selek a possible 10 behind bars.
Schneider, Yilmaz and Selek told the court they would not appeal the ruling. Gelowicz declined to comment and has one week to decide.
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