Mahmoud Al-Zaid, a Lebanese clan boss with German citizenship, was sentenced to six years in prison for kidnapping, bodily harm, and social benefits fraud.
In addition, his two sons were senteced to three years in prison each. The family’s estate in Leverkusen, which totals 1,700-square-meters, will also be confiscated, the regional court ordered on Thursday. The wife of the clan boss, who is illiterate, received two years’ imprisonment on probation while another son was sentenced to one year and nine months’ imprisonment on probation.
The defendants were guilty of “crimes of multiple kinds,” the presiding judge said. The clan took a plea bargain in which they confessed to a number of the crimes, according to German newspaper Junge Freiheit.
The defendants belong to the Arab Al-Zein clan, which has several thousand members n North Rhine-Westphalia, but the clan is said to have a total of 15,000 members. A daughter and a daughter-in-law of the clan chief were also charged but the cases were dropped because they are minors.
The clan is charged with commercial and gang-related social welfare fraud, hostage-taking, money laundering, extortionate kidnapping, dangerous bodily harm, and tax evasion.
Mahmoud Al-Zain, nicknamed “the godfather of Berlin” is one of the most powerful crime bosses in Germany. He recently published an autobiography entitled “The Godfather of Berlin: My Way, My Family, My Rules.”