- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 14 2000 02.40 GMT
Only three, who were convicted of manslaughter, were given jail terms - of just two to three years. Two were let off with warnings. The remaining six were given suspended sentences of between one and two years.
The outcome of the trial came as a big setback to the drive by the German government to clamp down on the far right and promote greater tolerance of foreigners.
Its campaign, which has won the backing of all Germany's mainstream parties, inspired a demonstration last week that brought more than 200,000 people on to the streets of Berlin in support of a multi-ethnic society.
The general secretary of the liberal Free Democrats, Guido Westerwelle, said: "I find it hard to take this sentence, even to the point of retaining my composure." Mr Westerwelle, who worked as a lawyer in the juvenile courts before entering politics, said the suspended sentences and warnings were "incomprehensible".
Farid Guendoul from Algeria died in the town of Guben near the Polish border in January 1999. He had hurled himself through the glass door of a house to get away from his pursuers and severed an artery at the knee. He bled to death in 15 minutes.
During the trial, the court heard how the defendants had set out to catch a Cuban they suspected of carrying out a machete attack on one of their associates.
The judge in his summing up acknowledged that their manhunt was well-prepared: three cars were used, and the defendants coordinated their movements by mobile telephone.
After they failed to find their intended victim, they embarked on an indiscriminate anti-foreigner rampage. Screaming "We'll get you all!" and "Hate! Hate! Hate!", the defendants threw paving stones at an Asian corner shop and a Vietnamese restaurant before targeting Mr Guendoul and two other asylum seekers.
The trial and the circumstances surrounding it reeked of tolerance for the activities of the neo-Nazi right.
In court, the defendants felt free to pull faces, insult witnesses and deride evidence. Their lawyers held up the proceedings with a flood of objections that dragged out the hearing for 17 months.
The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Wolfgang Thierse, called the delays "scandalous".
Only one defendant pleaded guilty. He was subsequently beaten up in a disco.
His co-defendants got a foretaste of the outcome when one of them was convicted of beating up an immigrant while still on trial. He was ordered to pay DM500 (£150) to charity.
Other defendants were alleged to have tried to destroy a memorial to Mr Guendoul while the trial was in progress. It has been defaced five times since it was put up.
One of the two men hunted with Mr Guendoul later lost his right to stay in Germany on the grounds that he was no longer mentally fit to manage his life by himself. However, he and his lawyer maintained that this was because of the trauma he had undergone as a result of the manhunt.
After Mr Thierse publicly criticised the regional authorities who had taken the decision, the man was granted permission to stay.
The victim's brothers announced that they intended to lodge an appeal against the sentences. But their lawyer said they did not have the funds needed to pursue the case further.
The lawyer added: "They are shocked. They had believed that would get a just outcome from Germany, as a state governed by the rule of law".
