The head of a large family of Arabic origin has been sentenced to six years in prison in Düsseldorf for taking hostages and social fraud. Two of his sons each received three years in prison for dangerous bodily harm and commercial and gang fraud.

The district court ordered on Thursday that the 1,700-square-meter property with the family's property in Leverkusen will be confiscated. The clan chief's wife received a two-year suspended sentence and another son received a year and nine months suspended sentence.

The accused were guilty of "multiple crimes," said the presiding judge. The verdict was preceded by a criminal agreement in the course of which the accused had confessed. The convicts are attributed to the Al-Zein clan, which is said to belong to several thousand people in North Rhine-Westphalia alone.