BERLIN—A German court on Friday convicted a military officer who posed as a Syrian asylum-seeker of plotting to attack prominent politicians, sentencing him to 5.5 years in prison.
The Frankfurt state court convicted the defendant of preparing a serious crime meant to endanger the state, violations of weapons laws, and fraud, German news agency dpa reported. It also found that he has extremist views. He has been identified only as 1st Lt. Franco A. in line with German privacy rules.
The 33-year-old German came to the attention of authorities after he was arrested in February 2017 while going to retrieve a pistol he had stashed in a Vienna airport bathroom. He was freed, but Austrian authorities informed Germany. When the soldier’s fingerprint matched the one he had given to register as an asylum-seeker, it triggered the investigation….