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A police officer in June 2021 investigating clan crime on the roof of a villa in Leverkusen
Photo: Marcel Kusch / dpa
The head of a large family of Arabic origin has been sentenced to six years in prison in Düsseldorf for taking hostages and social fraud.
Two of his sons each have three years in prison for dangerous bodily harm and commercial and gang fraud.
The clan leader's wife was sentenced to two years' probation and another son to one year and nine months' probation.
Among other things, the main defendant was accused of kidnapping a man with his sons in September 2018 in Düsseldorf to the soundproof basement room of a shisha bar.
Several men repeatedly beat the victim on orders from the head of the family in order to extort information.
They will kill him and bury him in the forest, the suspects are said to have said and have shovels ready to back up the threat.
The main suspect and three other family members were arrested in June 2021 during a major raid against clan crime in North Rhine-Westphalia in a villa in Leverkusen.
The district court ordered that the 1,700-square-meter property with the family property be confiscated.
According to a court spokeswoman, a sum of 406,000 euros is also to be confiscated.
The accused were guilty of "multiple crimes," the presiding judge said.
The verdict was preceded by a criminal agreement in the course of which the accused had confessed.
The convicts are attributed to the Al-Zein clan, which is said to belong to several thousand people in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.
aeh/dpa/AFP