FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A year after the arrest of members of Germany’s extremist Reichsbuerger group in a failed coup plot, the federal prosecutor has brought charges against a total of 27 men and women, German magazine Spiegel reported on Monday.
Ten of the group’s inner circle are scheduled to stand trial in Frankfurt, the report said. The suspected plotters had planned to create a new state headed by aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss after the coup.
Alongside Prinz Reuss, others under investigation include former elite soldier Ruediger von Pescatore, former member of parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, and ex-police officer Michael Fritsch.
Eight other defendants in the case were charged before the Munich regional court, and nine suspected co-conspirators were charged before the Stuttgart regional court, the report said.
The defendants are accused of membership or support of a terrorist organization and of preparing a “treasonable act”.
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, editing by David Evans)
