On Thursday afternoon, the district court in Geilenkirchen sentenced two neo-Nazis to suspended prison terms for desecrating the Jewish cemetery in Geilenkirchen. The trigger for the act at the end of December 2019 was the right-wing extremist and antisemitic attitude of the two, emphasized judge Thomas Schönig. There is a multitude of indications, evidence and references that the men committed the crimes.

Trainee Florian T. (23) from Gangelt was sentenced to one year and one month in prison, suspended for four years. The retrainee Björn G. (35) from Selfkant was sentenced to one year and three months in prison, also suspended. Both have to pay a fine of 2,500 euros to a non-profit organization as probation conditions.

The court also ruled that they had to pay the city for damage incurred of around 13,000 euros to restore the Jewish cemetery. However, the exact amount of the damage should be decided again.

The public prosecutor’s office in Aachen accused the neo-Nazis of knocking over 47 gravestones in the Jewish cemetery in Geilenkirchen and spraying paint on them or others. The public prosecutor accused the right-wing extremists of disturbing the peace of the dead and damaging property, as well as resisting police officers when they were arrested in the immediate vicinity of the crime scene. The desecration took place in the early morning of December 30, 2019.