Attack on the Capitol/ A member of the Proud Boys is also sentenced

2023-09-01 21:03:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Attack on the Capitol/ A member of the Proud Boys is also sentenced

Donald Trump supporters storming the Capitol building on January 6, 2021

A US federal judge on September 1 sentenced a member of the far-right group Proud Boys for the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Dominic Pezzola, who had no leadership role in the extremist group, is the only defendant - out of a total of five - to be acquitted of conspiracy to insurrection. However, he was found guilty of four other charges, including obstruction of justice and assaulting police. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

"You personally played an important role in the events of that day," said Judge Timothy Kelly.

"What happened is a national shame," he said.

Kelly said Pezzola was a new member of the group and had not been involved in the coup plot.

Ethan Nordean, the leader of the group who has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit insurrection and other crimes, will also be sentenced later on Friday.

A day ago, two former leaders of the right-wing extremist group, Proud Boys, were sentenced to more than ten years in prison, for organizing the attack on the United States Capitol in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden, after the 2020 presidential election.

Protest organizer Joseph Biggs was sentenced to 17 years in prison on September 1, while leader Zachary Rehl was sentenced to 15 years in prison. These are the harshest sentences to date for the January 6, 2021 attack.

These are the first two members of the Proud Boys to be sentenced to prison by US judge Timothy Kelly. Three more members of this group were also convicted by a jury in May, after a four-month trial in Washington after this extremist group had supported the lies of Trump, who has insisted that he had won the 2020 election.

The sentencing hearing for the former main leader of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, has been scheduled for Tuesday. He was not in Washington on January 6. Tarrio was arrested two days after the riots at the Capitol on charges of damaging a Black Lives Matters banner during an earlier rally in Washington.

Thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building after he delivered a speech in Washington. During the speech he claimed that the loss of the presidential election was the result of a huge fraud. Trump has continued to make these false claims while running for the 2024 presidential election.

Five people, including a police official, died during the riots and over 140 policemen were injured. Millions of dollars in damage were caused to the US Congress building as a result of the riots.

Over 1,100 people have been arrested on charges related to the attack on the Capitol. Of this number, over 630 have pleaded guilty and at least 110 have been convicted after holding trials./ REL