During a police operation in eleven federal states, a total of 25 suspected “Reich citizens” were arrested.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The Defense Committee of the Bundestag will also deal with the large-scale raid against the Reich citizen scene. The background to this is that, according to the Ministry of Defence, there are also a total of three soldiers among the suspects, including an active member of the Bundeswehr, a soldier from the Special Forces Command (KSK) and two other non-active soldiers.
On Wednesday, the federal prosecutor had arrested a total of 25 people in eleven federal states as well as in Italy and Austria. She accuses 22 of them of being a member of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system in Germany. Three other arrested people are said to be supporters.
19 of the 25 are now in custody. In the 19 cases, investigating judges at the Federal Court of Justice had executed the arrest warrants, a spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe announced in the evening. This concludes the performances for Wednesday. According to plan, suspects are still to be presented to the judges this Thursday.
The committee chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) told the “Tagesspiegel” that she had put the topic on the agenda for the upcoming meeting in order to find out details from the military counter-intelligence service MAD. “We will dry out this brown soup,” said Strack-Zimmermann.
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The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Thursday) that the accused active KSK member had been under surveillance for a long time. “The KSK had already become aware of him.” That’s why she doesn’t question the path of reforms in the KSK. A good two years ago, the future of the elite unit was unclear due to right-wing extremist incidents. A 60-point program should ensure changes at the KSK.
Nancy Faeser praises the security authorities
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser praised the work of the security authorities during the major raid. “It was a very, very big blow and it is good and right that democracy is so well defended,” said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening on the ARD program “Maischberger”. What makes the group so dangerous is “that there was a military arm of it. With people who used to be in the Bundeswehr, so they can also handle weapons”.
>> Read here: Plans to overthrow: 25 suspected Reich citizens arrested – among them is an ex-AfD MP
Faeser said that anyone who has fantasies of overthrow and wants to overcome the basic democratic order has no place in the public service. She is currently working on changing the disciplinary law “so that we can get rid of such enemies of the constitution more quickly”. “Filtering out” these cases often takes far too long. “It makes me a bit stunned that we haven’t done more in recent years,” said Faeser.
You have to “take a closer look” at authorities that deal with weapons, such as the Bundeswehr or the Federal Police. At the same time, the Federal Minister of the Interior emphasized that the vast majority of officials had “nothing to do” with cases like these. Faeser had already announced more decisive action against extremists in the public sector in January of this year.
US government: “Stand by to help”
The US government has offered assistance to the German government. “We remain in close contact with our partners in government and stand ready to assist if asked,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday. She responded to a journalist’s question as to whether the US was offering Germany, for example, intelligence information on the matter.
We welcome the diligence of the German government and its law enforcement agencies in the fight “against violent extremism” and for the “security of their citizens and government institutions,” said US President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman. National Security Council communications director John Kirby previously said he had no further information on the raid and referred German authorities to the matter.
More: Merkel accuses herself of a lack of commitment to armament of the Bundeswehr