With a major raid, the security authorities have blown up several right-wing extremist terrorist groups. There are a total of 50 suspects.
The Attorney General is talking about the “biggest action against right-wing extremists in Germany in one day”. And the scale of the operation alone makes it clear how important Wednesday morning’s major raid is: More than 800 officers were deployed, including the anti-terrorist unit GSG9. They searched 61 properties in eleven federal states and executed four arrest warrants against suspected neo-Nazis – and there are dozens of other suspects.
The focus of the campaign was the Thuringian city of Eisenach. Here the authorities arrested Leon R., Maximilian A. and Eric K. A fourth suspect, Bastian A., was arrested by the investigators in Rotenburg an der Fulda (Hesse).
Arrested four suspected neo-Nazis
The Attorney General accuses the four Germans, among other things, of membership in a right-wing extremist criminal organization and dangerous bodily harm.
Leon R. is said to be the leader of the neo-Nazi martial arts group “Knockout 51Eric K., Maximilian A. and Bastian A. should also belong to it in prominent positions deliberately indoctrinated with right-wing extremist ideas and trained for street fights,” said the Attorney General. The premises of the right-wing extremist NPD are said to have been used for these training sessions.
“Knockout 51” also attracted attention because it wanted to establish itself as a “regulatory force” in a “Nazi neighborhood” in Eisenach that it had created. As part of their “patrols,” the accused are said to have seriously injured alleged opponents in clashes in recent months. The four men are said to have also participated in violent demonstrations against the coronavirus protection measures.
According to the information, the investigations of the security authorities are also directed against ten other alleged supporters and members of “Knockout 51”.
In addition to the right-wing extremist martial arts group, three other organizations were the focus of the raid. The best known is probably the “Atomic Weapons Division Germany” (AWDD), an offshoot of a US neo-Nazi terrorist group that has existed since 2018.
The accusation against the AWDD: “Their aim is to ignite a ‘race war’ from which the ‘white population’ is to emerge victorious. By attacking and murdering other population groups as well as politicians, officials or state institutions, chaos is to be created and ultimately democratic basic orders through right-wing extremist forms of rule are replaced,” said the Federal Public Prosecutor.
Leon R. is also said to have had connections to the AWDD, and four other alleged supporters of the AWDD lead the investigators as suspects. According to “Spiegel”, one of them is said to be an army soldier in the Bundeswehr. The Attorney General confirmed that starthat the military intelligence service MAD (Military Shielding Service) had provided information.
Also the organization “SKD 1418” (Sonderkommando 1418) was aimed at the “destruction of existing democratic systems by replacing them with a neo-fascist system”. The members of the online chat group are said to have been looking for supporters for the “race war” and terrorist attacks membership in a terrorist organization.
The authorities are conducting a total of 21 suspects in connection with the banned neo-Nazi association “Combat 18 GermanyThe group is considered a militant arm of the Blood & Honor network, which is also banned. The accused are suspected of having secretly maintained the organizational cohesion of the association as ringleaders or of having supported it, despite the ban on the association.
Police investigated for years
In addition to Thuringia, the raids against the terrorist groups also took place in Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Berlin, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland and Baden-Württemberg. This was preceded by years of investigations by the special commission “Kern” at the Federal Criminal Police Office. The action of the security authorities was meticulously planned.
The investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice will decide on remand for the four arrested this Wednesday and Thursday.
President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Thomas Haldenwang, whose authority is said to have provided information for the preparation of the raid, told the DPA news agency that the searches were “an important blow to the violent right-wing extremist scene and a great success for the security authorities”. The federal government’s recently intensified package of measures against right-wing extremism in Germany is having an effect.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) thanked the security authorities for a “hard blow to the right-wing extremist and right-wing terrorist scene”. Right-wing extremism is “the greatest extremist threat to our democracy.” Fighting it is a priority.
Swell: , , news agencies DPA and AFP
Source: Stern
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