BERLIN (AP) – A far-right extremist in Germany was convicted on Thursday and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a regional politician who had advocated helping refugees, a blatant massacre that impacted the country.
In its verdict against Stephan Ernst, 47, the Frankfurt state court noted the “particular gravity” of the crime, meaning he would probably not be eligible to be released after 15 years, as is typical of German law, the news agency dpa reported.
During his trial, Ernst admitted to the June 1, 2019 shooting against Walter Luebcke, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, who headed the regional administration in the Kassel area in the center of Germany, although it gave three different versions of the facts.
Luebcke was pointed out because he had been frankly supportive of helping refugees. Prosecutors said Ernst had attended a 2015 city hall event where the politician had defended the German government’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers to enter the country.
The court held that Ernst “projected xenophobia on Dr. Luebcke.”
Ernst shot Luebcke on the politician’s porch and died hours later.
The German government warned after Luebcke’s assassination and other attacks, including one against a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of Judaism, in October 2019, that far-right extremism posed a threat. important for security in the country.
An accomplice that prosecutors claimed was with Ernst at the crime scene, identified only as Markus H. because of German privacy laws, was convicted of gun violations and sentenced to 18 months probation.
H. had been accused of being an accessory to the murder, but his lawyer argued that he was not involved and that he was only found guilty of the lesser charge.
Ernst was cleared of separate charges for stabbing and seriously injuring an Iraqi refugee in 2016. Presiding Judge Thomas Sagebiel said there are circumstances that point to him as the perpetrator, “but there is no sustainable evidence.”
“Today’s verdict cheers me up and at the same time reminds us all: we will not let our country be destroyed by right-wing terrorists and their intellectual instigators,” said Armin Laschet, leader of the Union party Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
Laschet said that “the murder of Walter Luebcke was not just an inhuman and unpleasant crime against an individual, but an attack on all of us.” He added that it is important to be behind other local politicians who are exposed to “personal hostility”.