Police officer shot during search in “Reichsbürger” milieu

According to dpa, the official is stable and the perpetrator arrested. The incident took place on Wednesday during a search in the “Reichsbürger” milieu. According to “Tagesschau.de”, the officials “first sought out the person as a witness, now he is considered a suspect and was arrested”.

A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor confirmed the arrest and that a shot was fired. The person is being investigated for attempted homicide. According to dpa information, the man is a sports shooter and had a license to own weapons. He entrenched himself when the special forces arrived and defended himself with a firearm. According to the “Stuttgarter Zeitung”, the officer was shot through the forearm.

Five suspects

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, there are now five suspects as a result of the raid on Wednesday. They are suspected of supporting a terrorist organization. Searches took place in eight federal states and in Switzerland; the five accused come from Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Switzerland. In addition, the premises of 14 other people who are not considered suspicious were searched. According to information from security circles, among them are a police officer and a member of the Bundeswehr. According to the federal prosecutor’s office, there were no further arrests.

At the beginning of December there was a large-scale anti-terror raid against so-called Reich citizens in several German federal states, in Austria and Italy. At that time, 25 men and women were arrested who are now in custody, including the former AfD member of the Bundestag and suspended judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann from Berlin.

Investigations against 30 people

In this process, the federal prosecutor also determined against 30 other people. It had always been said that it could not be ruled out that more suspects would be added over time. As the dpa learned, signed non-disclosure agreements discovered during the first raid were an important starting point for the operation on Wednesday. According to the security authorities, several gun owners were among the signatories.

“We must consistently disarm these extremists. To do this, we urgently need the tightening of gun laws that I have proposed,” said Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) on Wednesday in Washington, according to a statement from her ministry. Referring to the searches, Faeser said: “We will continue at this tough pace until we have fully exposed and dismantled these structures.” Nobody in this extremist scene should feel safe.

“Reichsbürger” are people who do not recognize the German Federal Republic and its democratic structures and therefore refuse to pay taxes, among other things. The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution counted around 23,000 people across Germany in the scene of “Reichsbürger” and “Selbstverwalter” in 2022, 2,000 more than in the previous year.