Stephan Ernst, a 47 year old German neo-Nazi was on Thursday, 28 January 2021 sentenced to life in prison at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt for murdering pro-migration politician (Walter Luebcke). The court found Stephen Ernst guilty of shooting dead Walter Luebcke (politician from Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party) on 1 June, 2019. Walter Luebcke’s murder is believed to be Germany’s first far-right political assassination since World War II. According to the report, Walter Luebcke was found dead in his home near the central city of Kassel and autopsy showed that he was shot in the head at close range. It was stated that Stephen Ernst was motivated by racism and xenophobia. Ernst’s accomplice (Markus Hartmann) who was accused of helping Ernst in weapons training was cleared of the charge, but was sentenced to 18 months probation for weapons possession. Late Walter Luebcke was the head of the Kassel regional council in the western state of Hesse and he supported Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open borders to refugees. Stephen Ernst who has a criminal history was a neo-Nazi sympathiser. In 1993, he was convicted of an attempted bomb attack on an asylum home and he was also involved in neo-Nazi clashes targeting a union demonstration in 2009.
Source: Viewers Corner News.