THE leader of a German skinhead rock band whose songs praised Rudolf Hess and other Nazis was jailed yesterday after being convicted of forming a criminal group which spread hate against Jews and foreigners in their songs.
Band leader Michael Regener, 38, was sentenced to three years and four months in prison, while two other band members were put on probation in a ruling that prosecutors hailed as a precedent in efforts to crack down on neo-Nazi music.
Wolfgang We
issbrodt, the presiding judge, said Regener was the creative force and songwriter behind the group Landser - which took its name from an old German word for foot-soldier.
Bassist Andre Moehricke, 25, and drummer Christian Wenndorff, 27, each received a year and nine months’ probation after the judge said they helped investigators and expressed remorse. All three were fined and ordered to perform community service. The court also found all three men guilty of incitement.
"This is the first time that a band has been found to be a criminal organisation," prosecutor Joachim Lampe said.
Prosecutors say the band produced CDs in the United States, Sweden, Britain and Poland to skirt German laws that make publication of neo-Nazi materials a crime.
The band members were arrested in Berlin in 2001.
Prosecutors said their albums contained "racist, nationalistic and anti-Semitic tirades of hate" and called for violence against foreigners, Jews and people with other political ideas.
