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CRIME

German court jails far-right activist who sold guns online

A German court Tuesday sentenced a far-right activist to jail after he illegally sold guns online from Hungary urging potential buyers to defend themselves against immigrants.

Published: 18 December 2018 16:58 CET
German court jails far-right activist who sold guns online
Photo: DPA

Mario Rönsch, 35, who was arrested in Budapest in 2016 on a European arrest warrant, received a term of two years and 10 months.

Because he can still appeal the verdict, he was allowed to leave the court but will have to regularly report to police.

Rönsch in 2016 set up several websites labelled “Migrantenschreck” (Migrants' fright) on which he urged buyers to “arm themselves against refugees”.

SEE ALSO: Hungarian police arrest German over online anti-migrant gun store

He sold 167 of the permit-requiring firearms which fire high-velocity rubber bullets that can hurt or even kill, earning almost €100,000, which were confiscated.

Rönsch admitted to the internet sales but claimed ignorance he had broken German law and voiced no contrition or regret, the court found.

The judge pointed out that Rönsch had advertised the weapons as capable of “taking down asylum seekers”, a “seditious” sales pitch that took advantage of racist sentiments “in a particularly insidious way”.

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ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Published: 25 June 2024 17:03 CEST
Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

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