A woman has been jailed for more than five years for helping orchestrate attacks on neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists in Germany in a two-year period.

Lina E, whose surname has not been released due to German privacy rules, has been convicted of serious bodily harm and being a member of a criminal organisation, the DPA news agency in the country has reported.

Prosecutors at the Dresden regional court accused the 28-year-old student of having a “militant extreme-left ideology” and conceiving the idea of attacks on far-right individuals in Leipzig and nearby towns in eastern Germany.

The attacks she was accused of helping orchestrate included a 2020 incident in which about 15 or 20 assailants beat a group of six people returning from a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the firebombing of Dresden.

The event regularly attracts neo-Nazis and other far-right sympathisers.

Prosecutors said several victims sustained serious injuries after being punched, kicked and hit with batons.

Three men, Lennart A, Jannis R and Jonathan M, are alleged to have joined up with Lina E by the end of 2019.

The men were sentenced to between 27 months and 39 months in prison.

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Lina E has been in custody since her arrest on 5 November 2020.

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The others have remained free.

Defence lawyers had called for their clients to be acquitted, claiming the trial was politically motivated.

Far-left groups have announced plans to protest against the convictions, prompting police to establish a large presence in Leipzig in anticipation of possible unrest.

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