Federal Prosecutor’s Office: Suspected leader of left-wing extremist group in custody

After the arrest of a suspected leader of the violent left-wing extremist scene, the accused is in custody. An investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe executed one of two arrest warrants, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said. Germany’s highest prosecutor accuses Johann G. of membership in a left-wing extremist organization. He is said to have belonged to the Leipzig group around the student Lina E. and to have occupied “a prominent position” within the association, as the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced.

“In 2019 and 2020, the association, which is also networked across regions, carried out violent attacks against people who, from their point of view, belonged to the “right-wing scene,” the statement says. There were numerous injuries. The members usually prepared the actions intensively and, among other things, spied out the lifestyle of the selected victims in advance. Their militant left-wing extremist ideology included rejecting the existing democratic constitutional state, the fundamental right to freedom of expression and the state’s monopoly on violence. According to the spokeswoman, the arrest warrant relating to these allegations is being executed.

Furthermore, in February 2023, Johann G. is said to have attacked people with accomplices in the Hungarian capital Budapest who, from the attackers’ point of view, were part of the right-wing spectrum. According to reports, several people were injured here too. Since this is part of a separate arrest warrant, over-arrest was reserved for this. That’s what it’s called when someone is already in custody and another arrest warrant is issued. This practically only becomes relevant if the other arrest warrant is revoked.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office therefore accuses him of having participated in a criminal organization in several cases. She also accuses him of, among other things, common grievous bodily harm, breach of the peace and damage to property.

Officials from the Saxony State Criminal Police Office arrested the 31-year-old on Friday on a regional train near Weimar. According to information from the German Press Agency, investigators were on the trail of Lina E.’s former partner for a while.

Johann G. had been in hiding since summer 2020 at the latest. There was also a public search for the German. The authorities had offered a reward of 10,000 euros for crucial information leading to his arrest.

In its statement, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office clearly lists the crimes he is accused of. Johann G. and his alleged accomplices are said to have acted brutally, using punches, kicks, striking tools such as sticks and wheel wrenches, as well as irritant gas. Some of the alleged victims suffered potentially life-threatening injuries.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, two of the incidents are related to a restaurant in Eisenach, which was a suspected meeting place for the right-wing scene. The accused are said to have followed one victim to his apartment and attacked him. When three of the victim’s companions fled into a car, the group damaged the car with impact tools, sprayed irritants inside through smashed windows and repeatedly hit the victims with their fists. While fleeing from the police, they are said to have thrown plastic bags onto the road to shake off the vehicles.

After a memorial event in Dresden on the 75th anniversary of the bombing of the city, Johann G. and Lina E. are said to have monitored several people during a train ride from Dresden to Wurzen in the Leipzig district and informed suspected accomplices by telephone. At the train station in Wurzen, “the victims were ambushed by the attackers who outnumbered them.”

The incidents G. is accused of occurred in Budapest on the occasion of the “Day of Honor”, when right-wing extremists from all over Europe come to the Hungarian capital every year to denounce the attempt by the German Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS and their Hungarian collaborators to break out of the city to commemorate the city besieged by the Red Army on February 11, 1945. Here the accused is said to have taken part in an attack on a café and attacked two people from behind on the street at night. They suffered multiple bruises and lacerations, especially in the head area.

Appeal hearing against Lina E. in February

The Dresden Higher Regional Court (OLG) sentenced Lina E. to five years and three months in prison in May 2023 for several attacks on right-wing extremists. Nevertheless, after two and a half years in custody, she was initially released under conditions. She will only have to serve the remaining sentence if the verdict is final.

The BGH has scheduled the appeal hearing for February 6, 2025 in Karlsruhe. According to the information, the Federal Prosecutor General is objecting to a partial acquittal of one crime as well as the entire sentence. The defendant, in turn, is appealing against her conviction.

The Higher Regional Court imposed prison sentences of between two and a half years and three years and three months for three co-defendants. During the trial, the name of the man who was now arrested was mentioned again and again.