By Torsten Holtz, dpa I Wednesday, May 24, 2023
BERLIN – Almost six months after a major raid targeting the far-right Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens) movement in Germany, prosecutors have had three further suspects arrested.
Reich Citizens do not recognize the legitimacy of the German state. Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office had 25 suspects arrested in Germany, Austria and Italy in December, including an ex-legislator and former army and police officers. Other suspects subsequently came under investigation.
In total, 63 people are so far being treated as suspects. The extremist group is accused of seeking to build up its own armed forces to overthrow the state.
According to Germany’s top prosecuting authority on Tuesday, a woman in the Lake Constance district of Baden-Württemberg, a man in the south-western state’s Freudenstadt district, and another man in the Harburg district of the state of Lower Saxony were arrested on Monday.
The trio is accused of membership of a terrorist organization, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
They were said to be associates of ringleader Heinrich XIII, now in custody, who goes under the title Prince Reuss of Greiz. Prosecutors say 24 suspects, all close to the ringleader, are in custody.
German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that the woman arrested on Monday unsuccessfully ran for the right-wing Die Basis party in Germany’s 2021 elections.
One of the two men was ordered to be held in custody on Monday. The other two suspects were to be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Supreme Court.
The woman is accused of having been involved in the movement since May 2022. She is also said to have participated in the Reich Citizens’ so-called council, which aimed to overthrow the existing state order.
The group wants to re-negotiate Germany’s state order with the victorious powers from World War II. In November 2022 or earlier, the woman sought contact with a consul general of Russia and subsequently met him twice.
“The talks were intended to gain support for the association’s actions,” prosecutors said.
The man arrested in Lower Saxony is alleged to have given the terrorist organization around €140,000 ($151,000) and to have taken part in meetings to recruit members and sponsors.
The third suspect is said to have had a leading role in a so-called homeland security unit and planned to take over a former barracks.
“He was given the task of recruiting personnel for his area of responsibility and training them militarily,” prosecutors added. Most of the 63 suspects are German citizens, but not all. Some are suspected of supporting the organization rather than being members.
Germany’s security service believes around 23,000 people belong to the Reich Citizen and the wider “self-governing” scene. In 2021, 1,011 extremist crimes were committed by members of the scene, up from 599 a year earlier, while 1,050 weapons licenses have been revoked since 2016.
