GP, celebrity chef and astrologer among defendants in third trial linked to far-right Reichsbürger
Eight alleged members of the German far-right Reichsbürger are to go on trial accused of a plot to violently overthrow the state, in the third in a row of similar court cases being held across the country.
The defendants, including a GP, a celebrity chef and an astrologer, are accused of serving as the plot’s leadership council and, prosecutors say, were set to become a cabinet in waiting if the group’s plan to storm the parliament building and overthrow the government had succeeded.
They are charged with membership of a terrorist organisation and preparing an act of high treason. The group had plans in place to kidnap Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and parade him on television in the hope of winning more followers to their cause, prosecutors say.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Eight alleged members of the German far-right Reichsbürger are to go on trial accused of a plot to violently overthrow the state, in the third in a row of similar court cases being held across the country.
The defendants, including a GP, a celebrity chef and an astrologer, are accused of serving as the plot’s leadership council and, prosecutors say, were set to become a cabinet in waiting if the group’s plan to storm the parliament building and overthrow the government had succeeded.
The Munich trial takes place amid huge security as Germany struggles with fears about the rise of the far right following its recent success in European elections, and in the wake of a flurry of arrests involving people accused in separate incidents of spying for Russia and China.
At the centre of the alleged plot is Heinrich XIII Prince Reuß, a pseudo aristocrat and estate agent whom the group intended to appoint as its interim leader.
“We have around 900 files of information and every day more and more pages are being added to them,” Laurent Lafleur, a spokesperson for the court, said ahead of the opening, explaining that the investigation continued even as the trials are up and running.
Together with a welder from the Bavarian rocker scene, Leiding was said to have used “spiritual criteria” to pick out appropriate candidates for the future government, including a celebrity cook from Austria, tasked with feeding the new regime a healthy diet, and a practising GP, described by former patients as “established and respected” in her community.
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