Some of the accused, four men and one woman, are also charged with other criminal offenses such as preparing for a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state or financing terrorism. The four male suspects were arrested in April last year, with the sole female suspect, classified as a female ringleader, arrested a few months later in October. All are in custody.
According to the findings of the federal prosecutor’s office, the group wanted to eliminate democracy and take over state power in order to introduce “an authoritarian system of government based on the model of the German Empire”. To this end, they wanted to bring about “civil war-like conditions”. The prelude to this should be attacks on the power supply, which should cause a longer nationwide power blackout.
According to the indictment, Health Minister Lauterbach was then kidnapped in an armed attack, with his bodyguards possibly being killed. According to their own ideas, the group wanted to use the resulting chaos to set up a “constituent assembly” in Berlin and to depose the government.
