MUNICH, Germany - Five former members of a neo-Nazi group were sentenced to suspended prison sentences of between 16 and 22 months on Tuesday for their part in a bombing plot at the site of a new Jewish centre.
The Munich appeals court found the three women and two men aged between 18 and 38 guilty of supplying firearms and 1.2 kilograms of explosives to Martin Wiese, the alleged ringleader of the plot.
Federal prosecutors say that Wiese's group intended to plant a bomb at a high-profile ceremony for the laying of the Munich-based centre's foundation stone in November 2003.
The then German president Johannes Rau, Bavaria's state premier Edmund Stoiber and leading representatives of the Jewish community were among guests at the event.
Four of the accused were also found guilty of membership of a terrorist group, the neo-Nazi 'Kameradschaft Sued' (Comradeship South).
The judges said that in sentencing they had taken into account the guilty pleas entered by the accused and the fact that they had since distanced themselves from the neo-Nazi scene.
Two of the five accused in the trial were under 18 when they were arrested in September 2003.
Wiese, 29, and three other neo-Nazis are standing trial separately. Wiese faces charges of leading a terrorist organisation.
04/05/2005 15:36 GMT