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Internet radio broadcasters jailed for promoting Nazi ideologyApr 11, 2011 (dpa - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- KOBLENZ, Germany -- A German court sent nine men to prison Monday for operating an internet radio station that promoted neo-Nazi ideology until police closed it down and arrested them in November. The most severe sentence was 39 months. Nine further men were convicted and freed with suspended sentences. The accused were convicted in Koblenz of sedition and of forming a criminal gang. The activists, who were aged 20 to 37, called their German-language streaming online audio programme "Resistance Radio." All participated as announcers. In a related development, police released 14 far rightists who had been detained early Sunday after a brawl with nine minority youths in the south-western town of Winterbach. The rightists set fire to a garden shed where the minority youths took refuge. Police said they were still collecting evidence and could not hold the 14 any longer, since there was no indication of an intent to kill. The victims were three Italian and three Turkish nationals. The two groups clashed after each side had been at parties. In another development, the German state of Brandenburg banned a neo-Nazi group, the Free Forces of Teltow-Flaeming. At the same time police raided the homes of its members to gather evidence. It was the sixth neo-Nazi group to be banned since 1995 in Brandenburg, a state that surrounds the city-state of Berlin. To see more of dpa, go to http://www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html Copyright (c) 2011, dpa, Berlin Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |