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Four convicted over German plot | Four convicted over German plot |
(10 minutes later) | |
Four Islamist militants have been convicted by a German court of plotting to attack US targets in the country. | |
The four, two of whom were German-born converts to Islam, were given prison sentences of between five and 12 years. | |
A court in Duesseldorf heard they had planned to kill US diplomats, soldiers and civilians by bombing targets like the US Air Force's Ramstein base. | |
They were accused of operating as a German cell of the radical al-Qaeda-linked group, Islamic Jihad Union. | |
Two German converts to Islam, Fritz Gelowicz and Daniel Schneider, were sentenced to 12 years in jail. | |
Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish citizen, was given 11 years, while Atilla Selek, a German of Turkish origin, was given five years. | |
The ten-month trial has been described as one of Germany's biggest terror cases. | |
Judge Ottmar Breidling said that the four had dreamed of "mounting a second 11 September 2001." | |
"If the accused had managed to do what they planned, it would have led to a monstrous bloodbath, primarily among US army personnel and also civilians," he said. |