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Consider what he (probably) has done! He didn´t point the weapon on anyone of us. He was "helping" those who committed the crimes, and he belongs to a terror cell. That´s all what he did. He didn´t kill anyone, he "just" helped those who did. I think that 15 years are a reasonable punishment, keeping in mind that life usually ends after 80 years.

During World War II, the individual below did not point a weapon at anybody either. He did not personally kill anybody. He just "helped" others realize that they should commit such crimes. That´s all he did.

As far as I know, Osama bin Ladin has never personally killed an American either.

Do you actually believe that only the man who pulls the trigger has the accountability for murder?

Do you actually believe that spending 15 years in prison, from age 30 to age 45, is a just sentence for aiding in the murder of 3,000 individuals? As putupon calculated, that comes out to less than 44 hours in prison for per each human life taken.

In the 1940's, Germans had so little regard for human life that 40 million Europeans died. Now, Germans believe that human life is so precious that a terrorist planner should only lose 15 years of it even if he helps murder 3,000 individuals.

The Europeans might say that Americans are "provincial". However, it is very hard for America to have much respect for such extreme manic depressive swings in European moral values.

In Germany, we make a difference between killing someone, encouraging someone to kill (like giving money or sth else) and helping someone to kill another. While we punish the first two groups of people with life imprisonment, those who help the offender but actually do not pull the trigger themselves (like the car driver on a run after a bank robbery) can get a 15 year term in prison. This is justified because they were not the leading figures in the crime, unlike the encouraging person and the offender himself.

In fact it´s our belief that restrictions on freedom must be considered very good and limited only to necessary terms. This guy didn´t want to committ the crime by himself, so we need to "reward" him for having been too shy to do it. If he would get the same sentence like the offender and the encourager, what else would prevent others from pulling the trigger next time too? We need to make that distinction.

And punishment in Germany follows two aims: preventing him from doing it again/integrate him into society and punish him for his crimes. Apparently, unlike you, my country believes in the New Testament (love your enemies). We don´t need to take it litterally. We can forgive, and we don´t believe that a state has the right to kill except in self-defense (war). The saying "eye for an eye" doesn´t work - just look at Israel/Palestine. The last judgment is up to God, not to us!

This is my country, and if anybody, I have a right to decide wether the sentence he may face is just or not (via my vote to parliament which can change the penal code). I´m not talking about your death penalty, so you should respect the sovereignty of my nation. If you don´t like it, call your government officials to request an extradiction of this guy.