 "Masked German police officers guard a house after having arrested eight suspected members of a right-wing militant group driven by racist ideology and conspiracy theories who had been training in warfare for the downfall of the modern German state, in Dresden, Germany, November 5, 2024. REUTERS/Matthias Rietschel")
A German court has sentenced five members of an extremist group linked to the Reichsbürger (Reich Citizen) movement for planning a coup and plotting to kidnap the health minister, The Guardian reported.
The defendants belonged to the self-styled “United Patriots” group.
On Thursday, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court sentenced four men to prison terms ranging from five years and nine months to eight years. A fifth person was sentenced to two years and ten months, according to the German news agency DPA.
It was one of several trials targeting the wider far-right movement, whose members adhere to conspiracy theories and reject the legitimacy of the modern German state.
According to The Guardian, they planned to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who was widely criticised by opponents of Covid restrictions, and were ready to kill his bodyguards if needed.
After the verdict, centre-left Social Democrats leader Lauterbach thanked “the police and the judiciary for solving and punishing the planned crime.”
The court heard that by January 2022, the group had planned to trigger a civil war in Germany and seize power through violence. Their plan included sabotaging the power grid, calling it “Silent Night.” They also hoped that the chaos would attract support from discontented security forces.
Reichsbürger supporters believe the German Empire, which fell in 1918, still exists.
Courts in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, and Stuttgart are conducting trials on similar cases, with some resulting in convictions and others still ongoing.