A series of early-morning raids in Germany culminated in the arrests of more than two dozen people accused of planning to violently overthrow the government as part of a far-right extremist plot.
Thousands of law enforcement officers descended on 130 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states early Wednesday, marking one of the biggest counterterrorism operations ever carried out across the nation.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/DVMW6S3MBVFK7CVXKIW2XP73AE.jpg)
The suspects — among them a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and a former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland — have alleged ties to the so-called Reichsbürger or the Reich Citizens movement. Members of the group have been striving to renegotiate Germany’s post-second world war settlement and have called for overthrowing the government.
Of the 25 people detained early Wednesday, 22 German citizens were arrested on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organization,” prosecutors said. Three more people, including a Russian citizen, were being held on suspicion of supporting the organization.
“We defend ourselves with all strength against the enemies of democracy,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote on Twitter.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/O4XSNWPSHJGPDC4NSLI4STAGNA.jpg)
Faeser said the Reich Citizens movement is “driven by fantasies of violent overturn and conspiracy ideologies” and that its members despise democracy.
Breaking News
As it happens
Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts.
“Further investigations will give a clear picture of how far the coup plans had progressed,” she added.
German media have identified the movement’s ringleaders as 71-year-old Heinrich XIII — a descendant of the Reuss family, which used to rule over parts of eastern Germany in the 12th century — and a former senior field officer for the German army’s paratrooper battalion named only as Rüdiger von P.
Prosecutors said the pair of men last year created a “terrorist organization with the goal of overturning the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with their own form of state, which was already in the course of being founded.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/O2LUPA24CRDE5ARAEQAS2R2BPU.jpg)
The suspects were also aware their goals could only be realized through military means and by force, prosecutors said.
Some of the group’s members had made “concrete preparations” to storm Germany’s federal parliament with a small armed group, according to prosecutors. “The details (of this plan) still need to be investigated” to determine whether any treason charges are necessary, they said.
Those arrested are due in court on Wednesday and Thursday. Another 27 people are under investigation, according to officials.
With News Wire Services
