full screen
Next
The storming of the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021. File photo.
1 / 2Photo: John Minchillo/AP/TT
33 years. That’s how long prosecutors want Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, to spend in prison.
Tarrio has already been convicted for his involvement in the storming of the Capitol in January 2021. Now he will receive his punishment.
Enrique Tarrio was not present in Washington DC on January 6, 2021. Yet he is the one who risks being behind bars the longest of those convicted of the storming that day when Congress was about to approve Joe Biden’s election victory. The prosecution is asking for a full 33 years in prison for the crime of “seditious conspiracy”, in Swedish law roughly equivalent to the capital crime of rebellion.
Several others have previously been sentenced to long prison terms for the rebellion. But if the court sides with the prosecution’s line, Tarrio’s sentence will be the longest ever handed down for the attack.
Order in chat group
Prosecutors allege that Enrique Tarrio was the one who directed the Proud Boys during the attack. The evidence mainly consists of text messages sent between the group’s members before and during the storming. “Do what must be done,” Tarrio is said to have written in an encrypted group chat, according to the AP news agency.
Enrique Tarrio himself was not in attendance, however, as he had been arrested a few days earlier for setting fire to a stolen Black Lives Matter banner, NPR reports. The defense claims that he was not in contact with any members of the organization during the uprising.
Tarrio is the last of the convicted Proud Boys members to receive his sentence. Leader Ethan Nordean was sentenced late last week to 18 years in prison. Another leader, Joseph Biggs, has been sentenced to 17 years in prison, and a Philadelphia local chairman, Zachary Rehl, received 15 years in prison.
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the extremist group Oath Keepers, who also took part in the unrest on 6 January 2021, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his involvement.
1,100 defendants
In total, over 1,100 people have been prosecuted for crimes in connection with the storming. More than 600 have been felled so far.
Formed in 2016, Proud Boys describe themselves as Western chauvinists who romanticize traditional, male-dominated Western culture, which some see as a cover for deeper racism.
FACT Storming the United States Congress
On January 6, 2021, the members of the United States Congress gathered in the Capitol to count the electoral votes of the presidential election and formally appoint Democrat Joe Biden as the winner and next president.
At the same time, tens of thousands of supporters of Donald Trump had gathered in the capital Washington DC for a political mass meeting on the theme “Save the USA”. At the meeting, Trump repeated his false claims of systematic voter fraud and claimed he was the real winner. He urged his supporters to go to the Congress.
“If you don’t get the hell out of you, you won’t have a country anymore,” said the then president.
Parts of the crowd did as he said. The protests turned violent when hundreds of people stormed the congress building and clashed with police. Some made it as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, as well as into one of the chambers. Parts of the building were vandalized.
At least five people, including a policeman, lost their lives in connection with the attack.
Read more