German police arrest far-right terror suspects

SIX men were arrested in Germany yesterday on suspicion of forming a far-right terror cell and planning violent attacks on politicians and immigrants in order to overthrow the government.

The six, who are all German nationals aged between 20 and 30, tried to obtain semi-automatic weapons and were planning to carry out a terror attack tomorrow, prosecutors said in a statement.

They were arrested in early-morning police raids in Chemnitz, the east German city that was the scene of neo-nazi riots in August. A seventh suspect was arrested two weeks ago.

“According to investigations so far, the accused had a ‘revolutionary’ aim based on their far-right beliefs of overthrowing the democratic constitutional state,” prosecutors said.

The suspects formed an extremist group under the name “Revolution Chemnitz” no later than Sept 11, two weeks after the city was shaken by violent protests over the death of a man in a suspected stabbing by migrants.

Five of the men carried out an attack on migrants in central Chemnitz on Sept 14, armed with glass bottles, knuckle-dusters and electric stun guns.

One migrant was seriously injured.

“According to the investigation, the attack was supposed to be a ‘dry run’ for an event the suspects planned for Oct 3 [a national public holiday to mark the reunification of Germany], details of which are not yet fully clear,” prosecutors said.

Police intercepted phone calls and online chats in which the group spoke of attacking politicians and journalists, who they described as “the media dictatorship and its slaves”, according to an unconfirmed report in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.