Overview

• Germany’s Frankfurt state court sentenced six Dutch nationals to prison terms ranging from five years to 13 years and nine months for seven ATM bombings carried out in 2022 and 2023.
• Judges ruled there was no intent to kill after concluding the defendants expected no harm to bystanders, leading to acquittals on attempted murder charges.
• Prosecutors established that the group stole roughly €870,000 and inflicted more than €2.5 million in damage across Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.
• The main defendant, Zakaria M. of Utrecht, received the longest sentence after being linked to four of the attacks.
• The ruling comes a month after Germany introduced tougher laws making explosive thefts standalone offences with higher minimum sentences.