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Judge among far-right plotters

Soldiers, a right-wing judge and an aristocrat with pretensions to become Germany’s new leader were arrested yesterday on suspicion of plotting to storm the Reichstag and overthrow the German government.

Investigators said that at least two dozen armed men and women had planned to force their way into the Parliament in Berlin and handcuff MPs and ministers in a violent coup d’etat.

The plot, involving members of the Reichsburger antiestablishment movement and farright conspiracy theorists influenced by the American QAnon movement, aimed to eliminate the existing state order ‘‘by military means’’, prosecutors said. More than 3000 police launched dawn raids across the country yesterday and arrested 25 suspects. Members of the elite GSG 9 commando unit took part in the operation at 150 homes, offices and storage sites, including a barracks of the KSK special forces command.

Those arrested are accused of forming a terrorist group last year led by Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, 71, an aristocrat who owns an estate in the eastern state of Thuringia, and a former paratroop commander named only as Rudiger von P, 69.

The plotters had formed a military and political wing and were trying to recruit soldiers with access to weapons, investigators said. Among those arrested was a serving commando with the KSK, and a former member of Parlia

ment for the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, 58, who is a judge in Berlin.

The suspects, most aged over 40, include a gourmet chef, a roofer who organised anti-Covid policy protests in the Black Forest, a pilot at a commercial German airline and a classical tenor who, it was envisaged, would take over the culture ministry under Heinrich, who saw himself as the new ‘‘regent’’.

Prosecutors said the group

was convinced that its aims could only be realised ‘‘by using military means and violence against state representatives. This includes carrying out homicides.’’ The members signed a confidentiality agreement, with anyone who violated it facing a death penalty. They obtained Iridium satellite phones worth about € 20,000 (NZ$33,000) to communicate if the mobile phone network collapsed. A wealthy female doctor is said to have been in charge of ‘‘spiritual issues’’ and donated

€ 20,000 to help to fund the plot. The group was also in close contact with two psychics responsible for vetting potential recruits.

The prosecutors said that a wider network of up to 52 people was linked to the plot, raising the prospect of further arrests.

‘‘The association has set itself the goal of eliminating the existing state order in Germany, the free democratic basic order,’’ Peter Frank, the federal prosecutor, told a briefing.

‘‘It combines the rejection of the state institutions in Germany with conspiracy myths consisting of various narratives of the Reichsburger ideology and the QAnon ideology,’’ he added, referring to the American conspiracy theory that inspired the riot at the US Capitol on January 6 last year.

Frank said the group of plotters had a political and a military arm, including former soldiers. The political wing called itself ‘‘the council’’. Prinz Reuss, an independent financial adviser based in Frankfurt, held meetings for the plotters at his estate in Thuringia, outlining an administration that would feature Malsack-Winkemann as justice minister.

Prinz Reuss is estranged from the House of Reuss, which ruled parts of Germany for hundreds of years. In August a spokesman for the family described him as an old man subject to ‘‘conspiracytheory misconceptions’’.

Frank said the group’s military arm hoped ‘‘to build up a new German army and consists of homeland security units, which have yet to be formed’’.

Some Reichsburger members have declared mini-kingdoms and issued their own passports. They were dismissed as cranks until 2016 when members were involved in a gunfight with police and one officer was killed. They have been targeted in a general crackdown on the far right in Germany in recent years after being tied to racist killings and terrorist attacks. They are believed to have links with QAnon.

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2022-12-09T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-09T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/281930252017456

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