Five imprisoned by extreme right plot to kidnap the Minister of Health

Five members of a German extreme right group have been imprisoned for conspiring to overthrow the government and kidnap their health minister.

Four of the group were described as “leaders” of a “terrorist organization” who planned to use violence to trigger conditions of the civil war in Germany.

The group had planned to kidnap the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, a defender of strict COVID -19 measures during the pandemic, and kill their bodyguards if necessary.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that the defendants had raised “a huge threat” for national security.

The Superior Regional Court of Koblenz heard that the group joined in January 2022 and devised a plan that included a sabotage attack to disable the electricity grid.

The group, composed of four men between 46 and 58 years and a 77 -year -old woman, hoped that they would join the unhappy members of the security forces.

Four defendants described as leaders were sentenced to between five years and nine and eight years in prison for a court in Western Germany.

A fifth defendant received a sentence of two years and 10 months after the trial of almost two years.

The identities of the five convicted persons have not been publicly revealed.

The group was associated with Citizens of the Reich whose followers believe that the German Empire, which collapsed in 1918, continues to exist. The researchers say it was directed by Prince Reuss of Heinrich XIII, a German aristocrat.

It is also said that they have been inspired by the movement of the Qanon conspiracy theory, which is associated with some supporters of Donald Trump In the United States.

After the verdict, Lauterbach, of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) of the Center -left, thanked the police and said that the State had shown that “it can defend itself against the theorists of the violent conspiracy.”

Faeser said: “Violent plans for a coup d’etat, attacks against electricity infrastructure, for the kidnapping of the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, and for the murder of their bodyguards have shown a huge threat.”

He added that security services “take the threats raised by the citizens of the Reich scene and” we are protecting our democracy. “

The sentence follows several judgments aimed at extreme right groups linked to the citizens of Reich that reject the legitimacy of the modern German state.