German court sentences Halle synagogue gunman to life in prison
Stephan B., who live-streamed the shooting in the city of Halle on the internet, had confessed to the crime and to a far-right, antisemitic motivation.
By REUTERSUpdated: DECEMBER 21, 2020 19:40Flowers and candles are seen outside the synagogue in Halle, Germany October 10, 2019, after two people were killed in a shooting(photo credit: REUTERS/FABRIZIO BENSCH)
A German court on Monday sentenced a man to life in prison for killing two people in a shooting attack near a synagogue in eastern Germany on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur last year.The Naumburg Higher Regional Court found the man, referred to by authorities only as Stephan B., guilty of murder, attempted murder and incitement, a court spokesman said.Stephan B., who live-streamed the shooting in the city of Halle on the internet, had confessed to the crime and to a far-right, antisemitic motivation.Prosecutors said he aimed to kill as many as possible of the more than 50 worshipers inside the synagogue. Only his poor aim and the unreliability of his homemade firearms spared nine other people from being wounded during his half-hour rampage, according to the intended victims.Life imprisonment in Germany has an indeterminate length and can be changed to parole after 15 years.But the court's sentence includes a provision for preventive detention, which denies release after the completion of the prison sentence to protect the public from dangerous offenders.The World Jewish Congress welcomed the ruling."I commend the German justice system for imposing the harshest possible sentence on a heartless, vicious antisemite who attempted to murder Jews in a synagogue on the holiest day of the Jewish year, and took the lives of two innocent people who happened to be in his way," WJC President Ronald Lauder said."The speed, follow-through and decisiveness of this trial is a definitive example of how the judicial system must respond to such horrific violence, making crystal-clear there is no place for such hateful, harmful rhetoric or behavior in society."Antisemitic crimes are particularly sensitive in Germany due to the legacy of the Holocaust.
