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German far-right ‘terror cell’ met on WhatsApp: report

  • February 16, 2020

A group of German nationals formed a “terror cell” which they dubbed “Der harte Kern” (German for “The Hard Core”), the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported on Sunday.

Prosecutors say the men wanted to cause “circumstances akin to civil war” by plotting “yet-unspecified attacks against politicians, asylum-seekers and Muslims.”

Authorities arrested 12 men in a series of raids in several German states on Friday. Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, the highest criminal court in the country, ordered the men on Saturday to remain in jail while the investigation continues.

Four of the detainees are suspected of forming a right-wing terrorist organization and the remaining eight of pledging their support, including funding, supplying of weapons, or cooperation in any terror plots.

A policeman walks behind a suspect in Karlsruhe (picture-alliance/dpa/U. Deck)

The suspects were accompanied by police to Germany’s highest criminal court

One suspect missing

Welt am Sonntag reported that the men became introduced through the Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp, with the alleged members forming the organization in September last year. One more man was believed to be a part of the group, but he remains at large.

According to the paper, the investigators also discovered links with the extremist group Soldiers of Odin, which was founded in Finland in 2015, amid the European Union refugee crisis.

While official information remains scarce, local media also reported that the police found weapons while raiding a total of 13 residences across six German states on Friday. The weapons included a so-called slam gun, a home-made scatter rifle, similar to the one owned by the anti-Semitic gunman who tried to attack the synagogue in Halle last October and instead killed two passers-by.

Far-right violence is a growing concern in Germany. Last June, senior regional official Walter Lübcke was shot and killed, allegedly by a known far-right extremist.

dj/mm (AP, AFP, Reuters, epd)

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Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-far-right-terror-cell-met-on-whatsapp-report/a-52399062?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

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