A German court on Friday handed a three-year jail term to a man who publishing online “death sentences” with calls to kill politicians, said to include former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz.
The 50-year-old German-Polish man, partially named as Martin S., admitted to operating an anonymous darknet platform called “Assassination Politics”, during the trial held in the western city of Duesseldorf.
He was convicted of crimes including terrorist financing, providing instructions about committing terrorist acts and building explosive devices including Molotov cocktails, a court spokeswoman said.
Martin S. on the site called for attacks on public figures, and reportedly published lists of names in “criminal files” along with “death sentences” he had pronounced for alleged crimes such as “high treason”, the court said.
He holds “far-right views,” the court’s press office told AFP.
A source close to the initial investigation has told AFP that while Martin S. acted alone, he had links to a broader right-wing conspiracy theorist movement, and that Merkel and Scholz were among those on his hit list.
Prosecutors said that he also solicited cryptocurrency donations intended to serve as “bounties” for the killings, although the court noted that no such donations were actually made.
The platform also contained sensitive personal data regarding potential victims.
Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison sentence, while the defence had argued for acquittal.
The verdict is not yet final and may be appealed.
In recent years, Germany has dismantled several far-right or conspiracy-driven networks suspected of plotting to target the country’s institutions and leaders.
In 2022, members of a group including an ex-MP and former soldiers were arrested over a plot to attack parliament, overthrow the government and install aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss as head of state.
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