In the U.S., a participant in the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault was sentenced for the first time to more than seven years in prison, which is now the most severe sentence of any related to these events.

This is reported by CNN.

At issue is Guy Reffitt, who came under the Capitol with a firearm, threatened House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and took a leadership role during the assault.

On Jan. 6, Reffitt arrived at the capital with several firearms and took one with him under the Capitol. In a video he himself recorded on Jan. 6, he stated that he "wants to see Pelosi's head rolling down all the steps to the exit, and McConnell's (Republican leader) too."

Reffitt turned out to be a member of the extreme right-wing, anti-government Three Percent Movement, active in the United States and Canada. He was the first among all those to be prosecuted to stand trial and not enter a plea bargain.

"Reffitt's unwillingness to admit the illegality of his conduct to begin with is a troubling signal," Judge Dabney Friedrich noted before sentencing. She also stressed that "patriotism" cannot excuse the defendant's actions, and that what he did was rather the opposite of patriotism.

Reffit's sentence, 87 months in prison, is two years longer than previous harsh sentences for those involved in the events.

Prosecutors initially wanted a much harsher sentence for him, given the death threats against members of Congress, which suggested that he was a domestic terrorist. But the judge disagreed, arguing that this would have created an unnecessary imbalance between the sentences of Reffitt and others who also had guns and had resorted to certain threats against congressmen.

Last week, one of the participants in the Capitol assault received more than 5 years in prison, the second longest sentence at the time.