The 2nd and highest-profile trial connected to a reactionary coup plot in Germany starts on Tuesday, with the supposed 72-year-old ringleader Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss preceding a Frankfurt court.
The prince will stand trial before the Greater Regional Court together with 8 others. Federal district attorneys implicate them of having actually been members of or having actually supported a terrorist company. They consist of previous members of the German militaries and a previous member of parliament for the Option for Germany (AfD) celebration.
They are implicated coming from the “Reichsbürger” network. So-called “Residents of the Reich” think that the contemporary German republic illegitimately changed the German Reich that was established in 1871 and continued under the Nazi program up until 1945. They turn down the authenticity of Germany’s contemporary federal state and its laws.
The trial is the second of 3 massive trials surrounding the declared coup effort. A trial versus declared members of the group’s military arm started in Stuttgart at the end of April. Other supposed members will stand trial in Munich from June 18.
The plot was discovered throughout a massive anti-terror raid in December 2022.
According to the indictment, the group started preparing and getting ready for “Day X” – the date of the coup – beginning in August 2021.
Particularly, an armed group was expected to penetrate the parliament structure in Berlin with the goal of jailing German political leaders and after that setting up a brand-new interim federal government with Reuss as president.
They were stated to have actually accepted they may need to compromise their lives to attain their objectives.
According to the district attorneys, around €500,000 ($543,000) and a big toolbox of weapons had actually been offered to the conspirators. Concrete preparations such as the recruitment of military workers had actually likewise occurred.
The implicated were unified by a deep rejection of state organizations and the complimentary democratic order, according to the federal district attorney’s workplace, which has actually explained the group’s ideology as “a corporation of conspiracy theories.”
The supposed leaders of the plot, Prince Reuss and Rüdiger von Pescatore, a previous solider who is stated to have actually led the military arm of the group, are on trial in Frankfurt.
Reuss is a descendent of an honorable household whose baronial title brings no official weight. Germany’s monarchy was eliminated more than a century back.
The describes of structures for a different state order are stated to have actually been exercised, with Prince Reuss serving as president. The previous Berlin judge and previous AfD legislator Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who is likewise among the Frankfurt offenders, was expected to have actually been the equivalent of justice minister.
Rigorous security preventative measures remain in location for the trial. A light-weight metal hall with a location of around 1,300 square metres has actually been specifically put up on the borders of Frankfurt.
According to the court, the offenders confront ten years in jail if they are condemned on one charge. In case of a number of guilty decisions and an overall sentence, they would deal with an optimum of 15 years in jail. The implicated are presumed innocent up until a judgment is reached.
In addition to the trial in Frankfurt, other members of the group in Stuttgart and Munich should likewise stand trial before the particular greater local courts.
The trial in Frankfurt alone is of extraordinary measurements for the Greater Regional Court, court spokesperson Gundula Fehns-Böer stated. The indictment consists of 617 pages.
9 offenders, 5 judges, 2 extra judges and no less than 25 defence legal representatives will exist at the trial. 10 individuals were initially set up to stand trial, however among them passed away in a medical facility in March, the court spokesperson stated.
Around 260 witnesses will be summoned and 40 to 45 policemans will supply security on every day of the trial. The court has actually set up 48 trial days through January.
