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The court was told the neo-Nazi Australian Nationalist Movement (ANM) members concocted the plot as a stunt to coincide with the release of van Tongeren’s book, The ANM Story.

They were arrested after some ANM members were charged over racist graffiti in Perth, with two rolling over and giving evidence about the plot.

Van Blitterswyk’s lawyer Evan Shackleton told the court his client had turned his life around since being a follower of van Tongeren – the “mastermind and catalyst” of the racist ANM movement.

“The ANM is a spent force. The white flag has gone up. It is finished,” Mr Shackleton said.

He called for a suspended sentence, saying his client had become a father in April and was employing six people in his carpentry business in the town of Gingin, 100km north of Perth.

Judge Michael O’Sullivan said it was clear van Tongeren had a considerable influence on Van Blitterswyk.

However, he jailed him for two years and four months for the racially motivated crime.

“It is un-Australian,” Judge O’Sullivan said.

“No-one in this country should be at risk of attack because of their ethnic background.”

Van Blitterswyk was made eligible for parole, at an unspecified date, and his sentence will be reduced by 90 days for time already spent in custody.

Van Tongeren, 58, pleaded guilty last November and was given a two year suspended sentence, after his lawyer told the court the former Vietnam Veteran was a sick and broken man.

He was ordered to leave Western Australia and is now believed to be living in Victoria where he reportedly recently won an art prize in the town of Inverloch.

Van Tongeren and Van Blitterswyk have been sentenced before after being found guilty in 1990 for conspiring to drive Asians from the state and trying to incite a race hate war.

Van Tongeren served his full 12-year jail sentence, while Van Blitterswyk was released early from his 14-year sentence.

Outside the court on Thursday, Detective Sergeant Dave Ellery said the ANM had been mostly dismantled but WA police would continue to monitor former members and associates.

“These people were released after a lengthy penalty and they re-formed again, but let’s hope they learned by their mistakes,” he said.

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Van Tongeren, 59, and Van Blitterswyk, 55, recruited young ANM members Daniel Tyrone Klavins, Matthew Peter Billing and Ian “Monty” Johnson to firebomb the Man Lin restaurant in Karawara, the Ko-Sing in Lynwood, the Foo-Win in Southlands and a fourth Chinese restaurant to be chosen later.

The firebombings were to be conducted as a publicity stunt in mid-2004 in the days before van Tongeren released his book, The ANM Story, and van Tongeren and Van Blitterswyk planned to run for the Senate that year.

It can now be revealed that van Tongeren pleaded guilty to conspiring to firebomb the restaurants in November last year and was released by District Court Chief Judge Antoinette Kennedy, who took into account the two years and one month he had spent in custody awaiting trial.

Judge Kennedy imposed the sentence conditional on van Tongeren leaving WA within seven days and moving interstate to live with family. Van Tongeren’s change of plea came just three weeks after he broke down in court.

Van Tongeren and Van Blitterswyk’s convictions come 17 years after they were jailed in 1990 over an 18-month terror campaign by the ANM in the late 1980s that involved the firebombing of Chinese restaurants, racist posters and a string of burglaries.

Under strict rules governing the admissibility of evidence, details of the men ’s criminal histories were not revealed to the jury at Van Blitterswyk ’s trial.

It was also not revealed to the jury that Billing, an ANM recruit who skipped bail with van Tongeren and spent six weeks on the run, pleaded guilty to being involved in the firebombing conspiracy and conspiring to defeat the course of justice.

Billing was sentenced to 4 years jail, with eligibility for parole after 2 years.

Klavins, the ANM’s former security chief and founder of the racist White Devils group, received a suspended sentence of 2 years after making a confession.

Mr Johnson told the jury that he agreed to be involved but backed out soon after.

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