A Hamburg court has convicted and sentenced seven members and one supporter of the right-wing extremist group “Last Defense Wave” to prison on charges including attempted murder, arson, and aggravated assault.
The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court also found the defendants guilty of being members or supporters of a terrorist organization. The group is accused of planning and executing arson and bomb attacks targeting asylum seeker shelters and left-wing facilities. They are also alleged to have engaged in "pedo-hunting," targeting individuals they believed to be pedophiles.
The individuals, who were between 14 and 21 years old at the time of the offenses, were tried under Germany's juvenile criminal law. Sentences ranged from one and a half to five years in prison. The sentence for the youngest defendant, one and a half years, was suspended.
The court heard that the group's arson attack on a cultural center in Altdöbern in October 2024 destroyed the building, and by chance, no one was injured. In January 2024, two members of the group attempted to set fire to an asylum seeker shelter in Schmölln using pyrotechnics, and also scrawled swastikas and xenophobic slogans on the facility's facade.
According to the indictment, three members of the group had also planned an arson attack on an asylum seeker shelter in Senftenberg, but this attack was reportedly prevented due to information provided by a reporting team. In June, two more teenagers were detained in Thuringia on suspicion of membership in the “Last Defense Wave” group.
These rulings can still be appealed.