They ask for a 33-year sentence against the leader of the Proud Boys

MIAMI.- US prosecutors requested a sentence 33 years in prison for the leader of the group Proud BoysEnrique Tarrío, after pointing out that he had promoted the disturbances registered in the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.

The jail sentence proposed by the Justice Department would nearly double that imposed in a separate case against Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, which was 18 years, at the time the longest sentence for a similar offense He accuses Tarrío.

The arguments of the prosecutors to accuse the leader of the Proud Boys, who was not in Washington at the time of the riot, focus on an alleged “call for insurrection” through social networks and the Internet.

“If Biden steals these elections we will be political prisoners. We will not leave in silence (…) I promise ”, the activist had published on his digital accounts.

The crime of seditious conspiracy that Tarrío is accused of is rare in court and dates back to a statute from the Civil War era. In fact, the Justice Department had not tried such a case in a decade, before Rhodes was convicted.

In statements to DIARIO LAS AMÉRICAS in May, when a judge found Tarrío and other members of the organization guilty, their lawyer, Sabino Jauregui, described the judicial process as a “political case.”

“The federal prosecutor’s office is trying to create a lesson, to set an example with the people accused of the events of January 6. The accusations are more severe than they should be. The prosecution is trying to seek the most serious punishment possible. It must be remembered that in Washington more than 90% voted Democrat and for Biden,” declared the lawyer. “The federal prosecutor’s office is trying to create a lesson, to set an example with the people accused of the events of January 6. The accusations are more severe than they should be. The prosecution is trying to seek the most serious punishment possible. It must be remembered that in Washington more than 90% voted Democrat and for Biden,” declared the lawyer.

Prosecutors are also seeking a 33-year sentence for one of the co-defendants, Joseph Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, and 30 years for Zachary Rehl, who served as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys.

Similarly, the Department of Justice agents asked the judge in the case for 27 years in prison for Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Washington, and 20 years for Dominic Pezzola, of New York, who was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other charges. serious.

According to prosecutors, the defendants “unleashed a force on Capitol Hill that was calculated to exert their political will on forcibly elected officials and undo the results of a democratic election.”

Lawyer Jauregui also said in May that “it is almost impossible for my client, the leader of a right-wing group, to receive a fair case in a city (Washington) with an overwhelmingly leftist population. An impartial jury is almost impossible.”

Another lawyer for the group, Norm Pattis, wrote that “the defendants are not terrorists. Regardless of the overzealousness displayed on January 6, 2021, and no matter how serious the potential interference with the orderly transfer of power may be due to the events of that day, a decade or more behind bars is excessive punishment. ”.

Tarrío and the other defendants will be sentenced by US District Judge Timothy Kelly after a series of hearings beginning later this month in federal court in Washington.

FOUNTAIN: AP – LAS AMERICAS DAILY ARCHIVE