Germany Arrests 25 People Accused Of Plotting Coup

German Police, in raids across the country, arrested 25 suspected members and supporters of a far-right group who were allegedly seeking to overthrow the State by force.

Gatekeepers News reports that the suspects are allegedly planning to install as national leader, a prince who had sought support from Russia, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.

Gatekeepers News reports that about 3,000 officers conducted the raids on Wednesday at 130 sites across 11 German Federal States against adherents of the Reich Citizens (Reichsbuerger) movement.

Prosecutors said members of the movement were suspected of “having made concrete preparations to violently force their way into the German parliament with a small armed group”.

They added that 22 arrested individuals were German citizens and were detained on suspicion of “membership in a terrorist organisation” while three others allegedly supported the organisation, including a Russian citizen.

The Kremlin said later on Wednesday there could be no question of any Russian involvement in the coup plot.

“This appears to be a German internal problem,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “There can be no question of any Russian interference.”

The suspects were arrested in the States of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, Saxony, and Thuringia, as well as in neighbouring Austria and Italy, according to the prosecutor’s office.

Prosecutors said the suspects have been preparing to carry out their plan since the end of November 2021 as they were aware that it could only be achieved with force.

The plot envisaged a former member of a German royal family, identified as Heinrich XIII P R under Germany’s privacy law, as leader in a future state while another suspect, Rüdiger v P, was the head of the military arm, the prosecutors’ office said.

It said there was no evidence the representatives had reacted positively to the request.

The German Government will respond with the full force of the law, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.

“The investigations provide a glimpse into the abyss of a terrorist threat from the Reichsbuerger milieu,” said Faeser in a statement, adding that the constitutional state knew how to defend itself against “the enemies of democracy”.