Treason trial begins in Germany over alleged far-right coup and kidnap plot
BERLIN — Five people are going on trial in Germany on Wednesday over their alleged participation in a plot to kidnap the country’s health minister and overthrow the government in a far-right coup.
Four men, aged 44 to 56, and a woman, 75, are accused of treason and of founding or being members of a terrorist organization.
Federal prosecutors say the group is linked to the Reich Citizens community, which rejects the legitimacy of Germany’s postwar constitution and has similarities to the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon movements in the U.S.
Prosecutors say the five defendants intended to create “conditions similar to civil war” by using explosives to cause nationwide blackouts, then kidnapping Health Minister Karl Lauterbach — a prominent advocate of strict coronavirus measures.
There were no indications that the group, which called itself United Patriots, was close to launching a coup attempt. But prosecutors said the group’s procurement of weapons and money showed they were “dangerous criminals who wanted to implement their plans.”
The men, whose names weren’t released for privacy reasons, were arrested in April last year. Police at the time seized 22 firearms, including a Kalashnikov rifle, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as large sums of cash, gold and silver.
An Alabama man has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol and invading the Senate floor with a knife on his hip.
The woman, who was arrested six months later, is alleged to have drafted numerous documents for the group, including an “arrest warrant” for Lauterbach. The retired teacher also wrote letters addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Polish President Andrzej Duda.
Lauterbach told German weekly Der Spiegel that he hopes for a “hard, fair verdict” that would deter others from planning similar plots.
The case is separate from that of the more than two dozen people arrested in December, also on suspicion of planning to topple the government. Among those alleged plotters was a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
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