Little is known about the plans to attack a suspected right-wing terrorist cell. But the goal was apparently to cause chaos, it said.
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(AP)
After breaking up a suspected right-wing terrorist cell, almost all of the twelve detained are in custody. Investigative judges of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) issued an arrest warrant on Saturday against three suspected members of the group and all eight suspected helpers.
The last screening is still ongoing, said a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office on the evening of the German Press Agency in Karlsruhe. It is about 35-year-old Thomas N. from North Rhine-Westphalia, who is said to have belonged to the core of the cell.
The hearings of the many suspects had dragged on all day. All twelve men were brought to the BGH in Karlsruhe. An investigating judge decides whether someone – as requested by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office – is in custody or has to be released due to lack of reliable evidence.
Raids in six federal states
The Attorney General had raided the group on Friday in six federal states. The alleged right-wing terrorists are said to have envisaged attacks on politicians, asylum seekers and Muslims in order to create chaos and thus cause the social order of the Federal Republic to falter. However, the project has not yet been specified.
The detainees, all German, are reported to be between 31 and 60 years old. Four of them are said to have joined together to form the actual terror cell. The eight others think the investigators are supporters. They are said to have agreed to give money, to procure weapons or to participate in future attacks. The federal prosecutor added a fifth man to the core of the group. He was the only one who was not arrested.
Exchange via chat and phone
According to the federal prosecutor, the group had exchanged chats and calls, and had met several times. The meeting is said to have been coordinated by 53-year-old Werner S. from the Augsburg area, partly supported by 39-year-old Tony E. from Lower Saxony (Uelzen district). As reported by “Der Spiegel”, more than ten people gathered last Saturday in Minden, Westphalia. This meeting was observed with great effort by the security authorities.
The North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul, here on January 23, 2020, spoke of a group that had been in view for some time.
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The third, Thomas N., against whom no arrest warrant has been enforced by evening, comes from the Minden-Lübbecke district, according to DPA information. The fourth alleged member of the group, 47-year-old Michael B., comes from Baden-Württemberg (Esslingen area).
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) announced on Friday during the searches that an administrative officer of the police had been suspended. This man is reportedly one of the alleged supporters. The other seven alleged helpers had also been caught in NRW, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt.
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