United States | Long sentences for far-right extremists who plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan

of Michigan the governor by Gretchen Whitmer the men involved in the planning of the kidnapping have been sentenced to years in prison, the news agency Reuters and CNN.

13 people was arrested for the preparation of the kidnapping and the takeover of the Michigan state administration building in October 2020. Seven of those arrested were men suspected of having links to the militant group Wolverine Watchmen.

On Wednesday for the 47-year-old extreme rightist A man from the Three Percenters was sentenced to 19 years in district court for masterminding Whitmer’s kidnapping.

The man was sentenced in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan in August.

On Tuesday, the sentence was also read for a 39-year-old man from the same group who was sentenced to 16 years in prison for planning Whitmer’s kidnapping.

Prosecutors the convicted men had planned to break into Whitmer’s vacation home and kidnap him at gunpoint.

The men planned to take Whitmer to a mock trial on trumped-up treason charges under the threat of the death penalty.

The men were also convicted of planning the use of an explosive weapon of mass destruction. It was meant to distract the police if they tried to prevent the kidnapping. One of the men was convicted of possession of an explosive.

As one the reason for the kidnapping plans of the far-right groups was the corona restrictions set by Whitmer in the early days of the pandemic.

The groups also planned to plunge the state into armed conflict before the fall 2020 presidential election. According to prosecutors, the men’s intention was to start “another American revolution”.

In 2020, Whitmer was the current president Joe Biden deputy head of the presidential election campaign. At that time, Whitmer also had the then president Donald Trump’s eye candy on social media. Trump demanded On Twitter, among other things, “the liberation of Michigan”.

First the verdict in the case was given in the summer, when the man who participated in the preparation of the act received a six-year prison sentence.

In October, three men from the Wolverine Watchmen gang were found guilty of aiding and abetting the kidnapping. The men face up to 20 years in prison.