GENE RANDALL, CNN ANCHOR: In Germany, neo-Nazis got a sharp message from the law on Wednesday. Our Berlin bureau chief Chris Burns reports on a trial that saw the book thrown at convicted skinhead killers.</s>CHRIS BURNS, CNN BERLIN BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Tough sentences aimed at sending a message to other neo-Nazis. The court in Halle gave the maximum life sentence to 24-year-old Enrico Hilprecht. To his 16-year-old co-defendants, nine years in prison, one year short of the maximum. The three admitted they beat and kicked Mozambican Alberto Adriano on June 11th in a park in the eastern German town of Dessau. They stripped him when he stopped moving. But the youths also contended they were drunk and didn't intend to kill Adriano, who later died of his injuries. The 39-year-old man left behind three children and a German wife, who recently moved out of fear of reprisal for the trial. The court determined the three youths attacked Adriano because of his race. The speedy trial is part of the government's crackdown on far- right violence, especially in former communist East Germany, blamed in part on 17 percent unemployment there, twice that in Western Germany. The government is promising more job training for youth in the east. But with this trial, the government also intends to show that it won't tolerate the violence as an economic side effect. Chris Burns, CNN, Berlin.
In Germany, Neo-Nazis Get a Sharp Message from the Law