German Neo-Nazis Found Guilty in Fatal Firebombing : Europe: Two skinheads given maximum sentences for murder of Turkish woman and two girls.

Two skinheads were convicted of murder Wednesday and given maximum sentences in the racially motivated firebombing last year that killed a Turkish grandmother and two girls while they slept.

The court in this Baltic seaport sentenced Michael Peters, 26, to life in prison and Lars Christiansen, 20, to 10 years. The self-professed neo-Nazis were found equally culpable, but Christiansen was tried as a juvenile, which under German law can mean any offender younger than 21.

“The consequences of their actions were appalling,” said Presiding Judge Hermann Ehrich. “Their guilt is not in doubt.”

The judgments were among the harshest handed out in three years of continuing racist violence against foreigners, and were seen as a long-overdue confirmation that German authorities are taking seriously the threat from the radical right.

“These verdicts are important for Germany, Europe and the world,” said Uelkue Bassoy, the Turkish consul general in nearby Hamburg. “We hope that the significance is recognized by the German public.”

Faruk Arslan, whose mother and daughter were killed in the firebombing, has blamed some German politicians for encouraging hatred and intolerance toward foreigners--partly by failing early on to forcefully condemn acts against them. His attorney made the same accusation during the seven-month trial, going so far as to request--unsuccessfully--the court appearance of high-ranking government officials in Bonn.

A sullen Arslan said Wednesday that he was grateful for the verdicts, but he complained that little has changed in the year since he lost his family members. He pleaded with Germans to “let go of their hatred” toward foreigners.

“If I turned around and went back to Turkey, that would please many Germans, I know,” said Arslan, who moved to Germany 25 years ago when his father came looking for work. “That would be admitting defeat, and that I cannot do.”

At least 30 people have died in racist attacks since 1990, but the number of such incidents has dropped since Peters and Christiansen hurled Molotov cocktails into two Turkish apartment buildings in the picturesque town of Moelln after midnight on Nov. 23, 1992.

One of the bombs exploded in the stairwell at No. 9 Muehlenstrasse, setting the building on fire and trapping several residents upstairs. Bahide Arslan, 51, and her granddaughter Yeliz, 10, and niece Aysse Yilmaz, 14, perished in the flames.

The victims were the first among Germany’s long-established Turkish community and shocked many Germans, who until then had paid scant attention to the wave of racist violence. Hundreds of thousands of people subsequently held candlelight vigils in support of foreign residents, and authorities launched a crackdown on right-wing extremists and their organizations.

But a series of relatively mild sentences in racist cases turned the international spotlight on the German judiciary, which was accused of being blind in the right eye. Pressure for a successful outcome in Schleswig grew even greater in recent weeks, as the government’s case in a similar bombing attack last May in Solingen began to unravel.

The five-member panel of judges went to great lengths to explain the verdicts as apolitical, saying Peters and Christiansen were convicted on the basis of evidence--not their contempt for foreigners and admiration for Adolf Hitler. Since their imprisonment last year, the two men have grown their hair back and abandoned their skinhead attire; they appeared in court in blue jeans and sweat shirts.

But their involvement in the local neo-Nazi scene--Peters was also convicted of two earlier racist attacks--helped the judges conclude that the firebombing was premeditated and therefore warranted the severest penalties.

Peters and Christiansen confessed several days after the attacks--Peters anonymously reported their deeds the same night by telephoning police, signing off with “Heil Hitler!”--but they later recanted their confessions.

The judgments had been expected on Monday but were put off when defense attorneys produced a surprise last-minute witness who allegedly confessed to the firebombing after being arrested for drunk driving. But the judges dismissed the confession as drunken nonsense.