Right -wing extremism: young right -wing terrorists? All arrested in custody

After nationwide arrests and searches for a suspected right -wing extremist terrorist group, all five are arrested in custody. The investigative judge at the Federal Court of Justice opened the arrest warrants in the morning and put them in execution, as a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor said.

The Karlsruhe authority had the five young people aged 14 to 18 on Wednesday. It accuses them of membership – and in one case support – a terrorist association. Three of them were custody on Wednesday. Because of their age, the suspects had to be accompanied by their parents to demonstration.

Defender of the “German Nation”?

The right -wing extremist group, which should include the arrested, is called the “last wave of defense” according to the federal prosecutor. With arson attacks on asylum seekers’ homes and left -wing institutions, the group wanted to bring the democratic system of the Federal Republic to collapse. She sees herself as the last instance to defend the “German nation”, according to the Supreme German law enforcement authority.

The five suspects were grasped on Wednesday in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Wismar and district of Rostock), Brandenburg (Oberspreewald-Lausitz district) and Hesse (Lahn-Dill-Kreis). The police searched a total of 13 objects there as well as in Saxony (Leipzig district) and Thuringia (district of Altenburger Land and Ilm-Kreis).

Brand attacks in Brandenburg and Thuringia

The group’s federal prosecutor is expected to expect three brutal attacks and attack plans. In some cases, they are said to have been planned or committed by the recently arrested, partly of three other accused who are already in custody. It is about an arson attack on a cultural center in Brandenburg, an attempted attack on an asylum seeker home in Thuringia and stop plans for asylum accommodation in Brandenburg.

The legal penalty is 14 years. But even after that, young people are not punishable per se. The Youth Court Act also requires “responsibility”. So the perpetrators have to be ripe enough to recognize the wrong of their actions and act afterwards. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office assumes this in the event of the four minors. At the age of 18, the fifth is considered an adolescent.

Experts speak of new quality of radicalization

From the point of view of experts, the case shows that the radicalization of young people has achieved a new quality. In recent years, it has been increasingly to be observed that young, violent groups formed, some of whom were also in contact with right -wing extremists, said the head of the Democracy Center Hesse, Reiner Becker, the dpa. One also speaks of a “return of the baseball club years”-a reference to the skinhead culture of the 1990 and early 2000s.

Gudrun Heinrich, researcher for extremism and political education at the University of Rostock, also reports that radicalization processes have now been shown much faster and earlier. “All teachers we talked to tell us that the covers have fallen a little in recent years.” Racist statements, swastika and Hitler greetings would increase. Even from primary schools, teachers reported such incidents, said Heinrich.