Multi-year prison sentences for Basel bombers
Published: Monday, Nov 27th 2023, 17:00
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The Federal Criminal Court has sentenced two Basel residents to prison terms of 60 and 74 months. It found them guilty of carrying out an explosives attack on a private house in the Bruderholz district of Basel. They also attempted to buy plastic explosives.
The explosives attack at the end of March 2022 in the Bruderholz district caused property damage of 170,000 francs. No one was injured. In the summer of the same year, the two men also traveled to Stuttgart/Germany to buy two kilograms of plastic explosives. They had actually also planned to buy a weapon. The alleged seller was a German investigator.
On Monday, the Federal Criminal Court found the 25- and soon-to-be 28-year-old men guilty of endangering with explosives and toxic gases with criminal intent and qualified damage to property. In addition, the court found them guilty of the offense of disseminating explosives and toxic gases - but only in the form of an unsuitable attempt, as they were given dummies by the investigator.
"Unscrupulous and greedy"
The criminal division assumes that the offender was considerably culpable. It regards the younger man as the planner and the 28-year-old as the man responsible for the execution. Only together could they have carried out the attack in Bruderholz and organized the explosives for further acts.
The presiding judge described the culpability as considerable. The actions in Bruderholz were "particularly unscrupulous" and pursued with "considerable criminal energy", based on a "pronounced greed". The aim of the perpetrators was to intimidate wealthy families or individuals with attacks and to extort millions from them.
The younger man was sentenced to a longer prison sentence, mainly due to the revocation of a previous conviction. In 2020, the Basel-Landschaft Criminal Court sentenced him to a conditional custodial sentence for attempted extortion and preparatory acts for a robbery.
Because he committed the currently assessed offenses during the four-year probation period, the criminal division has given him a poor prognosis, meaning that revocation of the Basel sentence is permissible. The sentenced person will be credited with the 518 days of imprisonment served to date.
Talked into conscience by the judge
The presiding judge spoke to the convicts after the sentence had been passed. He was surprised that they had not worked while in prison and had not developed any ideas about what to do later.
They had done a lot of nonsense and the punishments imposed were harsh. But they are still young. He urged them to make the most of their time in prison and get involved, because one day they should become part of society again.
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) was satisfied with the verdict because the court had largely followed its indictment. It had demanded prison sentences of eight and ten years respectively. However, it will await the written reasons for the verdict in order to better understand the decision and then decide on how to proceed.
The court acquitted the men of the charge of criminal preparatory acts for further offenses. The planning of the further attacks had not been so sophisticated that they would constitute this offense.
Bragging on the phone
The police were in the dark for a long time after the attack on the private house in the Bruderholz district. It was only the Basel residents' attempt to procure plastic explosives on the darknet that led them to the trail. After their arrest in Stuttgart on June 20, 2022, they were extradited to Switzerland and released from custody on December 14, 2022.
By monitoring and listening to telephone conversations, the investigating authorities were able to overhear how the 28-year-old told a friend about the crime in Bruderholz. The examination of internet histories and other data finally led to an overall picture. (Case SK.2023.33)
©Keystone/SDA
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