Member of neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division in Seattle sentenced to 16 months in prison after making threats to Jewish journalists and activists
A member of a neo-Nazi group that made terror threats against American Jewish journalists and activists was sentenced to sixteen months in federal prison in Washington state.
Prosecutors said Johnny Roman Garza, 21, a member of the Atomwaffen Division (German for “Atomic weapon”) went to the home of a Jewish journalist and put a poster on a window showing the journalist’s name and address, a house-fire and a figure in a skull mask holding a Molotov cocktail.
He was also convicted of threatening members of the organisation and targeting people in several states outside Washington.
Mr Garza was one of four men indicted for conspiracy and cyber-stalking. Prosecutors accepted that he was not the leader but had “enthusiastically embraced” the plot, researching addresses of journalists and “those who oppose hate.” The alleged leaders are scheduled for trial in March. Another man pleaded guilty in September and will be sentenced in February.
According to a prosecutor, Mr Garza said that the plot was “designed to have them all wake up one morning and find themselves terrorised by targeted propaganda.”
In sentencing Mr Garza, District Judge John Coughenour said that prison was necessary, “given the severity”, but that the sentence was less than the recommended term as he had factored in his age and “turbulent childhood” as well as his belief that Mr Garza was genuinely remorseful.
Atomwaffen Division is an paramilitary neo-Nazi group that trains its members in the use of firearms and reportedly seeks to ignite a race war in the United States.
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