Three long trials against a cell of Reichsburger will occupy Germany in the coming months. These citizens who do not recognize the legitimacy of the Federal Republic are accused of high treason for having prepared a foiled coup at the end of 2022. This April 29, the first part of this affair opens in Stuttgart with nine accused, all members of the armed wing of the group of conspirators.
2 mins
For a long time, the Reichsburger were taken for enlightened people in Germanytells our correspondent in Berlin, Nathalie Versieux. They reject the laws of the Republic, refuse to pay their taxes or create their own identity documents.
The plot foiled in December 2022 revealed another dimension of the movement. The small group nourished by conspiratorial and far-right ideologies planned to invade the German Chamber of Deputies in Berlin, to arrest elected officials and overthrow the government.
The searches in fact made it possible to uncover a veritable arsenal, and a proposed coup d’état which was to bring to power Henry XIII, Prince Reuss, the head of the conspirators, a septuagenarian aristocrat and businessman, descendant of a line from the State of Thuringia. He will be judged in Frankfurt from May 21. In his troops, elite soldiers, a deputy judge of the Bundestag, a doctor: all are accused of high treason and risk life in prison.
Three trials for a sprawling cell
The shadow of Moscow hangs over the plot. The alleged companion of Henri XIII, a Russian national named “Vitalia B.”, is in fact suspected of having “ put the aristocrat in contact with the Russian Consulate General in Leipzig and accompanied him there in June 2022 “. The Kremlin denied any support in December 2022 when the cell was dismantled.
The first nine suspects, tried in Stuttgart from April 29, are mostly suspected of having tried to recruit other people to their cause in the ranks of the German army or police, or among former members of these two institutions. One of them, Markus L., is also accused of attempted murder for shooting at point-blank range at police officers who were carrying out a search at his home in Reutlingen in March 2022.
In total, there are 26 of them who will have to answer for their projects before the German courts in three different trials. The trials will be held in Stuttgart, Munich and Frankfurt. Verdicts not expected until next year
Read also :Germany: “Citizens of the Reich”, from folklore to a danger for democracy