Two men received a sentence of life imprisonment Monday for the grisly slaying in Germany last year of a trio of used-car dealers from the Caucasus republic of Georgia, dpa reported.
The bodies of the victims, aged 28, 39 and 48, were found dumped in Germany's Rhine river after they were robbed of wads of cash they had been carrying to buy second-hand German cars to take home.
Before the murders, the Iraqi-born accused, 40, had been employed by German police to spy on the other accused, a 27-year-old Somali, who is suspected of fund-raising for Islamist terrorism.
Attempts by each to blame the other were rejected as lies by judges in the central German city of Frankenthal. The Iraqi claimed that the Somali murdered the Georgians out of hatred of Christians.
Police are still investigating the Somali separately over his links to an Islamist group, now under arrest, who are alleged to have plotted a huge bomb attack on soldiers at a US base in Germany.
The court said the brutal murder on January 30, 2008 was motivated by greed.
African and Eastern European car merchants often buy cars in Germany, where vehicles more than 10 years old are often bargains.
The Georgians had invited by the convicts to inspect a car and were then driven to the German town of Heppenheim. There, the Iraqi strangled one and the Somali shot dead the other two in a lonely barn.
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