Also read this analysis: After long sentences for Capitol stormers, justice can set its sights on the possible clients
Enrique Tarrio, leader of the far-right militia Proud Boys, was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday for his involvement in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, judge Timothy Kelly decided on Tuesday. It is the most severe punishment so far handed out for the attack on the American parliament. According to the judge, it does not matter that Tarrio was banned from the American capital due to an earlier arrest and was therefore not physically present during the storming. He directed the Proud Boys from a distance. His lawyers said after the hearing that they will appeal against the verdict.
After a long trial, a jury in Washington convicted Tarrio and three other Proud Boys in May of sedition and conspiracy against the state. Tarrio’s right-hand man Ethan Nordean was sentenced to 18 years in prison last Friday, against the Cuban-American 33 years in prison was demanded.
On the infamous January 6, a mob of Trump supporters attempted to block Joe Biden’s election win by violently disrupting the joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate. Five people were killed as a result. Militias such as the Proud Boys, a heavily armed neo-fascist movement that supports former President Donald Trump, argued that the entry into the House of Representatives was premeditated.
Read also: The final report on the storming of the Capitol points to one man above all else