Last week eight men were found guilty in a German court of plotting to launch a “civil-war-like” revolt in Berlin. They were accused and convicted of membership in a rightwing terrorist organization called Revolution Chemnitz.

The group formed in Chemnitz September 2018, in the aftermath of anti-immigrant protests that engulfed the eastern German city.

According to prosecutors, Christian K. (the group’s ringleader) invited the other seven members to an online chat where he then posted a document outlining what he wanted the group to achieve.

None of the members objected to the plans, which essentially outlined a call for violent action against “leftists, parasites, Merkel zombies, media dictators and their slaves.”

The group allegedly planned  to orchestrate a civil-war-like rebellion in Berlin on October 2, 2018. Prosecutors based their charges partly on the use of chat logs found on the defendants’ mobile phones.

The members of the group were caught by police during a so-called “practice-run” in mid-September.

With that reminder that the United States is far from alone in dealing with far right-wing and neo-Nazi organizations, on to this week’s look back.

• March 30, 2002 — Tel Aviv, Israel: One person is killed and another 30 are injured in a suicide bombing. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade claims responsibility for the attack.
• March 31, 2000 — Northern Ireland: A Catholic businessman discovers a pipe-bomb attached to his car. Meanwhile, a second pipe-bomb is discovered at the rear of a garden in Gray’s Lane off the Antrim Road in north Belfast. Both attacks were claimed by the Red Hand Defenders (RHD) a Loyalist paramilitary group.
• April 1, 1970 — El Salvador: Farabundo Martí Liberation People’s Forces is founded. The group grew out of a proposal by the Salvadoran Communist Party that armed force was required to overthrow the country’s military dictatorship.
• April 2, 1986 — Greece: A bomb explodes aboard TWA Flight 840 about 20 minutes before it was due to land in Athens. The bomb blows a hole in the starboard side of the aircraft. Four passengers are killed when they are sucked out of the hole, and another seven are injured by shrapnel and flying debris. The bomb was believed to have been planted under a seat during an earlier flight. The plane was able to make a successful emergency landing. An operative working for the Abu Nidal Organization was later arrested but no one was convicted in the attack.