Police in Germany raid homes over alleged Saxony PM murder plot
Berlin, Dec 15 (EFE).- Police in the eastern German state of Saxony have raided a series of homes belonging to far-right anti-vaccination activists after they made death threats against the state prime minister, Michael Kretschmer, because of his support for coronavirus restrictions.
Police uncovered “objects, crossbows, parts of weapons” the spokesman for the Regional Criminal Investigation Office, Tom Bernhardt, said in a video broadcast on social media.
The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating six people, five men between the ages of 32 and 64 and a 34-year-old woman, for allegedly planning “a serious violent act intended to subvert state order,” the police announced Wednesday in a joint statement.
The six suspects, according to the same source, are in a Telegram group whose members “are united by the rejection of vaccines, the state and current anti-Covid measures.”
The six “expressed in group chat and in non-virtual meetings plans to assassinate the Saxon prime minister and other representatives of the Saxon government,” the statement added.
The group’s alleged plans were revealed on December 8 in an investigative report by the public broadcaster ZDF, which had access to voice messages in which the suspects claimed to possess firearms and to be ready to “sacrifice themselves” to achieve their goals.
Saxony, a stronghold for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), has the lowest vaccination rate in Germany.
In recent days, security and interior officials of the federal government and the states have been discussing measures to curb the radicalization of Covid-skeptic groups on Telegram.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said she intends to strengthen a new law against hate speech on social media to also include messaging apps such as Telegram, which would have to report potentially criminal content to the authorities. EFE
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