{"id":24143,"date":"2022-12-07T08:17:19","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24143"},"modified":"2022-12-07T08:17:19","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T13:17:19","slug":"germany-arrests-25-of-far-right-group-reichsburger-suspected-of-plotting-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/07\/germany-arrests-25-of-far-right-group-reichsburger-suspected-of-plotting-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany arrests 25 of far-right group Reichsburger suspected of plotting coup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Around 3,000 police officers have carried out raids across Germany to stop an alleged plot by a far-right terrorist group to overthrow the government.<\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors said 25 suspected members and supporters of the Reichsburger group – the so-called Reich Citizens movement – were detained during the raids in 11 of the country’s 16 states early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Twenty-two German citizens were detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organisation”, and three others, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the group.<\/p>\n

The Reichsburger movement brings together several far-right groups whose aim is to get rid of the current government and replace it with their own.<\/p>\n

According to the authorities members of the group have been preparing to “carry out actions based on their ideology” since November 2021.<\/p>\n

Armed police are reported to have stormed up to 100 properties across Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia, as well as in the Austrian town of Kitzbuehel and the Italian city of Perugia.<\/p>\n

A 71-year-old, who goes by the name Prince Heinrich XIII, and who is thought to come from the long-standing German aristocratic family of House Ruess, is believed to be central to the group’s activities and was among those arrested.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the group planned to install him as Germany’s new leader.<\/p>\n

According to German news site, Bild, he had contacted Russian officials with the aim of negotiating a new order in the country, and the group had also selected who would be in charge of various ministries within its new government.<\/p>\n

Prince Heinrich XIII was allegedly assisted in this by a Russian woman, Vitalia B.<\/p>\n

“According to current investigations there is no indication however that the persons contacted responded positively to his request,” prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The Russian embassy in Berlin denied having links to the far-right group, while the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “This appears to be a German internal problem.”<\/p>\n

He added: “There can be no question of any Russian interference.”<\/p>\n

The current head of the House of Reuss-Greiz, Prince Heinrich XIV Reuss of Greiz, earlier this year distanced himself from his relative.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the German news site OTZ in August, he described him as a “confused old man” who had not been in contact with the family for 14 years.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, German interior minister Nancy Faese said the raids showed the country “fighting back against the enemies of democracy”.<\/p>\n

In a post on Twitter, she wrote: “The investigations give us a glimpse into the abyss of a terrorist threat by Reichsb\u00fcrger.<\/p>\n

“The suspected terrorist organisation uncovered today is – according to the state of the investigation – driven by violent overthrow fantasies and conspiracy ideologies.<\/p>\n

“The further investigations will provide a clear picture of how far the plans for overthrow had already progressed.<\/p>\n

“Militant Reichsb\u00fcrger are united by their hatred of democracy, of our state and of people who stand up for our community.<\/p>\n

“That is why we are taking action against such endeavours with all the consequences of the rule of law. We will continue to take this hard line.”<\/p>\n

Der Spiegel reported that the barracks of Germany’s special forces unit the KSK in the southwestern town of Calw was one of the locations raided.<\/p>\n

The unit has in the past been scrutinised over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.<\/p>\n

A female judge – identified by prosecutors as Birgit M-W – was also detained during the raids. She is said to have links with the far-right Alternative for Germany party.<\/p>\n

Known by its German acronym AfD, the party has increasingly come under scrutiny by German security services due to its ties with extremists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0\"Sky<\/a> news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 3,000 police officers have carried out raids across Germany to stop an alleged plot by a far-right terrorist group to overthrow the government. Federal prosecutors said 25 suspected members and supporters of the Reichsburger […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,6],"tags":[1256,8992,1981,320,1468,8993],"class_list":{"0":"post-24143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-world","10":"tag-austria","11":"tag-coup-plot","12":"tag-far-right-extremist","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-italy","15":"tag-terrorist-group","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24146,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24143\/revisions\/24146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}