German prosecutors indict 27 people in connection with an alleged far-right coup plot

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Tuesday they have filed terrorism charges against 27 people, including a self-styled prince and a former far-right lawmaker, in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government that came to light with a slew of arrests a year ago.

An indictment against 10 suspects, including the most prominent figures, was filed Dec. 11 at the state court in Frankfurt. Under the German legal system, the court must now decide whether and when the case will go to trial.

Nine of those suspects, all German nationals, are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization that was founded in July 2021 with the aim of “doing away by force with the existing state order in Germany,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors said that the accused believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy myths,” including Reich Citizens and QAnon ideology, and were convinced that Germany is ruled by a so-called “deep state.”

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Adherents of the Reich Citizens movement reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for bringing down the government, while QAnon is a global conspiracy theory with roots in the United States.

The nine suspects are also charged with “preparation of high treasonous undertaking.” They include Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, whom the group allegedly planned to install as Germany’s provisional new leader; Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a judge and former lawmaker with the far-right Alternative for Germany party; and a retired paratrooper.

The group planned to storm into the parliament building in Berlin and arrest lawmakers, prosecutors said. It intended to negotiate a post-coup order primarily with Russia, as one of the allied victors of World War II.

They said that Reuss tried to contact Russian officials in 2022 to win Russia’s support for the plan, and it isn’t clear how Russia responded.

A Russian woman identified only as Vitalia B. is accused of supporting the terrorist organization, in part by allegedly setting up a contact with the Russian consulate in Leipzig and accompanying Reuss there.

Another 17 alleged members of the group were charged in separate indictments at courts in Stuttgart and Munich, prosecutors said.

Officials have repeatedly warned that far-right extremists pose the biggest threat to Germany’s domestic security. This threat was highlighted by the killing of a regional politician and an attempted attack on a synagogue in 2019. A year later, far-right extremists taking part in a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions tried and failed to storm the parliament building in Berlin.

In a separate case, five people went on trial in May over an alleged plot by a group calling itself United Patriots — which prosecutors say also is linked to the Reich Citizens scene — to launch a far-right coup and kidnap Germany’s health minister.