In a nationwide raid, 25 suspected members and supporters of a terrorist organization were arrested early Wednesday.
The raids were announced by Germany’s federal prosecution agency and German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
Buschmann said the investigations were directed against a suspected terrorist network with known ties to the Reichsbürger movement. He said that the raids had taken place on individuals suspected of planning an armed attack on state institutions.
“Since this morning a large anti-terror operation is taking place. The Federal Public Prosecutor General is investigating a suspected terror network from the Reichsbürger scene,” Buschmann wrote. “The suspicion exists that an armed attack on constitutional organs was planned.”
The search operation is reported to have covered 130 properties belonging to 52 suspects in eleven German states.
According to prosecution officials, the arrested suspects “belong to a terrorist organization founded by the end of November 2021 at the latest, which has set itself the goal of overcoming the existing state order in Germany and replacing it with its own form of state, which has already been worked out in outline.”
The Reichsbürger movement is made up of a number of small organizations and individuals, mainly in the states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria. They do not accept the legality of the Federal Republic of Germany nor any of its government authorities.
rc/msh (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-arrest-25-suspected-far-right-terrorists-in-nationwide-raids/a-64011136?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf