Neo-Nazis who planned to attack mosques appear in court: Muslim neighborhoods were their targets

In France, the leader of a Neo-Nazi group that planned terrorist attacks on mosques has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

AA

A court in France has sentenced Alexandre Gilet, the leader of a Neo-Nazi group that planned terrorist attacks on mosques, to 18 years in prison. According to evidence presented in court, the group was also planning to attack neighborhoods where Muslims predominantly reside.

According to reports in the national press, the Paris Criminal Court upheld the 18-year prison sentence for Gilet, the leader of the Neo-Nazi group who was brought before the court last year and accused of planning terrorist attacks.

Gilet and three others, who were accused of planning terrorist attacks specifically targeting mosques and the European Parliament (EP) building in 2017 and 2018, appeared in court in Paris last year.

The defendants other than Gilet were sentenced to between 3 and 5 years in prison, and the defendants did not appeal the court's decision.

THEY WERE INSPIRED BY THE TERRORIST WHO KILLED 51 PEOPLE

The indictment prepared against the defendants, who were members of a Neo-Nazi messaging group called 'Operation WaffenKraft' and ranged in age from 17 to 28, noted that Gilet, who had previously served in the military as a volunteer, was the leader of the group and had prepared a 'manifesto' using the rhetoric of Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 people in 2019 by attacking two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The indictment stated that the four far-right individuals specifically targeted neighborhoods where immigrants lived and planned attacks on the Omar Mosque in Paris, a mosque in Creil, the EP building, and a meeting attended by Jean-Luc Melenchon, the former presidential candidate of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party.