2024-07-25 12:21:06
According to the court, Reich Citizens were planning a coup. A 67-year-old from Schleswig-Holstein supported the group. He has now been sentenced for this in Hamburg.
He supported so-called Reich Citizens in their plans for a coup: For this, the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court sentenced a 67-year-old from the Bad Bramstedt area in Schleswig-Holstein to a suspended prison sentence of two years.
The State Security Senate in Hamburg considered it proven that the defendant supported a terrorist organization and helped prepare a treasonous operation. He also committed firearms violations.
According to the court, the man had joined the so-called Kaiserreich group in early 2022. This group had aimed to establish an authoritarian government system in Germany based on the constitution of the German Empire of 1871. This was not a group of harmless cranks, but a highly dangerous organization, said the presiding judge.
According to the Hamburg Attorney General’s Office, the group wanted to cause a long-lasting and widespread power outage in Germany before the coup. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was to be kidnapped by armed men during a live talk show.
The defendant had also relied on Russia’s support, said the presiding judge. What he said about this during the trial was so absurd that one could only shake one’s head.
“You took on organizational tasks for the group,” said the presiding judge to the defendant. He was also involved in the discussion about the procurement of weapons. However, the court is convinced that the strong 67-year-old was not the main perpetrator. There are currently other proceedings against so-called Reich citizens in Germany.
In the Hamburg trial, the public prosecutor had requested a prison sentence of two years and ten months, while the defense had argued for no more than two years. The verdict is not yet final.
At the start of the trial at the end of May, the man admitted the charges. The defendant had explained that he had always been very interested in German history and had found contact with like-minded people during the Corona measures. They had communicated in chat groups via Telegram. “That’s how I slipped into this scene,” he said. He had known about the coup plans since February 22, 2022.
However, the court did not believe his statement that he had distanced himself from the plans later on. The presiding judge described his attempts to call the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, in which he said he wanted to warn the authorities, as half-hearted. “You could have gone to a police station at any time,” she stressed.