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Defendants in the courtroom in Munich in June:
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
The Munich trial of suspected officials and members of the banned neo-Nazi network Blood & Honor ended with fines and suspended sentences for the men.
The suspended prison sentences are between eight months and one year and ten months, as the Munich I Regional Court announced on Wednesday.
Fines range from 80 to 160 daily rates.
Ten men were originally charged in the trial.
The court had already discontinued the proceedings against one of the accused, after he had made a confession, against payment of a monetary condition.
The nine remaining defendants were found guilty of violating a ban on associations, and there were also other offenses such as incitement to hatred.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
The court saw it as proven that the ten accused men had continued the "Blood & Honour" organization, which had been banned by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in September 2000, and had spread right-wing extremist ideas.
Some of the accused had sold music CDs with banned right-wing rock and merchandising items with banned right-wing extremist symbols and had taken part in right-wing rock concerts.
The verdict was not surprising.
As early as July, the court had offered the accused comparatively mild sentences – in return for confessions.
The procedure for such a deal is regulated in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
In such an agreement, the judges and the parties agree on what the verdict will be.
As a rule, the prerequisite is that the accused declare their willingness to confess.
The court can then say what the expected penalty will be.
The deal will go through if the defendants and prosecutors agree.
This saves a lot of time for those involved because the taking of evidence is significantly shorter.
bbr/dpa
