Terrorism: “Saxon Separatists” – Raid against right-wing terrorist group

Emergency forces in Saxony and Poland arrested eight men in a raid against a suspected militant neo-Nazi group. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office accuses them of membership in a right-wing extremist, terrorist organization. According to dpa information, among those arrested is a member of the AfD: a local politician from Saxony who is also a member of the Junge Alternative Sachsen.

By Tuesday evening, six of the eight men had been taken into custody, the federal prosecutor’s office announced. It was initially unclear when the other two suspects would be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, one of them could not be brought to Karlsruhe because of an injury, the other is still in Poland, where he was arrested.

The group calls itself the “Saxon Separatists,” Germany’s top prosecutor said. Their ideology is characterized by racist, anti-Semitic and sometimes apocalyptic ideas. They are said to have planned to use armed force to conquer areas in Saxony and possibly also in other East German countries on an unspecified “Day X” in order to establish a state and society aligned with National Socialism there. “Unwanted groups of people should be removed from the area through ethnic cleansing if necessary,” said the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

AfD distances itself from the group

According to officially unconfirmed information from security circles, the AfD local politician appeared in front of the police officers with a long gun during the raid that morning. An officer then fired two warning shots, it said. The accused suffered a broken jaw and was undergoing surgery. Witness interviews will clarify how the injury occurred and further details about the incident.

The Saxon AfD regional association rejected any connection to the affected group. “We only know the previous press reports on this process. Our party stands firmly on the basis of the free-democratic basic order. We have nothing in common with such a presumably neo-Nazi “separatist group” in terms of content or organization,” said party spokesman Andreas Harlaß to the German Press Agency .

AfD chairman Tino Chrupalla also expressly distanced himself from the group. Reports that a local AfD politician was among those arrested were “completely shocking,” emphasized Chrupalla in Berlin. If the allegations are confirmed, such people “have no place in either the JA or the AfD.”

The group practiced urban warfare and patrolling

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the group is said to have been founded in November 2020 at the latest. Four of the German citizens arrested on Tuesday are said to have been among the original members, and one is said to have been a ringleader. According to the Karlsruhe prosecution, the others joined later. According to dpa information, the oldest of them is 25 years old.

The men repeatedly completed paramilitary training with combat equipment. “In particular, urban warfare, the use of firearms, night marches and forced marches as well as patrols were practiced,” the statement says. The group also acquired military equipment such as camouflage suits, combat helmets, gas masks and protective vests.

“The fact that they were trained to handle weapons and procured military equipment shows how dangerous these right-wing extremists are,” said Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). She referred to the early clarification of the group by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Searches in Saxony, Poland and Austria

In total, over 450 security forces and police officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), special forces from the Federal Police and the Saxony State Criminal Police Office were deployed during the arrests and searches in Germany. With one exception, the arrests of the young men all took place in Saxony, more precisely in the Leipzig area, in Dresden and in the Meißen district. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the searches also targeted seven other suspects who are still at large.

The suspected ringleader of the group was in Poland at the time of the attack. But he also comes from Saxony. The Polish domestic secret service ABW said officers had arrested him in Zgorzelec on the basis of a European arrest warrant. In Austria – in Vienna and in the Krems-Land district – the police searched two properties. But no one was arrested there.

“It is a great success that the Federal Prosecutor General and the security authorities managed to uncover these outrageous plans and arrest those responsible,” says Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). At the same time, this success of the investigation once again serves as a warning: “Our constitutional state and the free-democratic basic order are threatened from many sides.”