London: German far-right coup-plotters wanted to storm the country’s capitol building and execute Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was on an 18-person hit-list found by police, sources close to persecutors have claimed, media reports said.
Police arrested 25 people in dawn raids on Wednesday that investigators say were involved in planning a violent overthrow of the state to install a former member of a German royal family – 71-year-old Heinrich XIII, Prince of Reuss-as national leader, Daily Mail reported.
On Thursday, more details about the group’s plot have emerged, with prosecutors alleging the Reichsburger terrorists planned to sabotage the electricity network to facilitate the coup, storm the government building and execute or deport 18 lawmakers, it said.
Meanwhile, the sweeping crackdown by German authorities is not yet over. Officials expect further arrests and raids in the coming days, with officials saying there are now 54 suspects – a number that is expected to rise.
In Wednesday’s raids, German police are said to have uncovered a list containing the names of 18 “enemy” politicians, that the group allegedly wanted to execute or deport.
According to the New York Times, citing an anonymous source close to the investigation, Chancellor Scholz was on the list. The group planned to execute him.
The sources said plotters intended to disable the electricity network to aid in their attack on the German government, and had already purchased satellite phones that they would use to communicate off the grid.
The group then planned to storm the Capitol building in Berlin, arrest lawmakers, and execute the German Chancellor, according to the newspaper’s sources.
Prince Heinrich would then be installed as the head of a central ‘Council’ that was due to include judge and former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, 58, as head of the Justice Department, it is alleged.
Meanwhile the ‘military arm’ – led by a 69-year-old former paratrooper named only as Rudiger v. P – would be responsible for establishing a new army recruited from the ranks of the current Bundeswehr defence force and police, it has been claimed.
Cops found protective vests to crossbows, rifles and ammunition during their raids, Daily Mail reported.
–IANS