After searches in the course of investigations against the right-wing extremist martial arts group “Knockout 51”, arrest warrants were issued and executed against three men. Two of the accused are accused of being members of a right-wing extremist criminal and terrorist organization, and another is said to be a supporter, as the Federal Prosecutor General announced on Friday in Karlsruhe.
The three were arrested on Thursday. Four objects were searched in Thuringia – according to information from the DPA news agency in Erfurt and Eisenach.
“Knockout 51” was primarily active in the Eisenach area; particularly violent right-wing extremists gathered in the group. According to the Federal Prosecutor General, it was a right-wing extremist martial arts group “that, under the guise of joint physical training, attracted young, nationalist-minded men, consciously indoctrinated them with right-wing extremist ideas and used them for physical confrontations with police officers, members of the political left-wing scene and other people deemed worthy of combat “trained”.
A trial against four alleged members of “Knockout 51” is already underway at the Jena Higher Regional Court. Among other things, the men planned to kill their political opponents using knives, axes and machetes, it was said during the reading of the indictment. The court had only allowed the charges against the men on the condition that, at least temporarily, “Knockout 51” would only be classified as a criminal organization and not as a terrorist organization.
