Two Germans charged

Earlier, the same court jailed three German men, Christian Wurder, Miek Kranz and Mario Buss, for one year for their part in the Lens fighting. The three, aged between 22 and 30, threw beer cans and chairs and violently resisted arrest during clashes after the match, the court was told.

The court handed down stiffer sentences than those requested by the prosecutor, who had asked for jail terms of between six and eight months. Warneke, 27, is the owner of a tattoo and body-piercing studio in Hanover and is described by neighbours as right-wing but not Neo-Nazi.

He played in a rock band and was known by histrademark shaved head, dark glasses, goatee beard and pitbull terrier. The state prosecutor told a court in this northern town near Lens, where Germany played Yugoslavia on Sunday, that Warneke had convictions for violence in Germany and faced legal action there for attacking a night club bouncer.

Warneke has denied being present when the gendarme was attacked, saying he was sitting in a bar in lens drinking beer.

His lawyer, Bertrand Wambeke, told reporters: “He is downcast. He is a man showing no signs of aggression, who does not understand the situation at all.”

Gendarme Daniel Nivel was assaulted after the match. He was beaten about the head with various weapons and is in a deep coma, surviving only on a respirator.

Elschner was one of 15 Germans held for questioning on Sunday after violence throughout the day. He sells records on German street markets.

The mass-circulation German Bild newspaper reported that the hooligans clubbed Nivel into unconsciousness with a rifle butt beer bottle andwooden post.

A 17-year-old witness who described himself as a hooligan gave a chilling account of how fans pounced on the lone officer in a side street.

“I saw one of us break his weapon in two pieces and then smash the cop over the head with the butt,” the fan was quoted by Bild as saying.