WASHINGTON. The head of the US far-right group, Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for sedition as part of the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot. Stewart Rhodes “represents a persistent threat and a danger to the United States,” said federal judge Amit Mehta reading the heavy sentence against the leader of the Oath Keepers.
It is the heaviest sentence concerning the people involved in the insurrection, which saw thousands of Trumpian supporters head for the Capitol, with the aim of stopping the proclamation of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States. Rhodes, who did not enter the building that houses Congress, was considered one of the organizers of the revolt and convicted of a series of federal crimes, including “seditious conspiracy”, which can be translated as “conspiracy with the aim of sedition”, which provides for a maximum sentence of twenty years. The prosecution, brought forward by the Justice Department, had asked for twenty-five years, adding the aggravating circumstance of the fact that Rhodes, as a former soldier, had broken his military oath of allegiance to American institutions. The defense had asked for a maximum sentence of sixteen months, i.e. the time spent so far in prison by the defendant.
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