A pensioner believed to be the ringleader of a terrorist group planning to launch attacks on German politicians and power infrastructure has been remanded in custody.
Identified only as Elizabeth R in accordance with German legal norms, the 75-year-old retired teacher from the eastern state of Saxony is suspected of having been what investigators have called the “ideological brains” behind the far-right group, which had planned kidnappings and attacks on power facilities meant to cause blackouts across Germany.
Four men connected with the plots were arrested in April. They were found to be in possession of heavy weapons and to have been trying to obtain explosive materials.
Footage released on Friday showed Elizabeth R climbing out of a police helicopter clutching a paper bag after arriving in Karlsruhe on Thursday, where a judge at the federal court of justice remanded her in custody. She was arrested at her house in Flöha, Saxony, earlier that morning.
It is as yet unclear how close the group was to realising its alleged aims, or the likelihood of them having succeeded.
Holger Schmidt, a terrorism expert, told German television the existence of online groups who expressed the desire to overturn the German government was not unusual but it was often the case that they had no real intention in putting their plans into action. “But with this group, investigators are taking their threats seriously particularly after they were found to have been in possession of heavy weapons and were trying to get hold of explosive material,” he said.
One of the first aims of the group – which investigators say had close links to the far-right Reichsbürger scene as well as the anti-vaccine and coronavirus denier movements – was to kidnap Germany’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, and if necessary to kill his bodyguards in the process. They also planned to cause a series of nationwide energy blackouts by attacking power stations.
When the plot was revealed in April after the arrest of the four men, Lauterbach said: “This is a small minority in our society, but they are highly dangerous.”
One of the men, identified as Sven Georg B, a management accountant from Falkensee near Berlin, was one of the heads of an extremist Telegram group called United Patriots, later renamed as Day X Germany. Police found an SS uniform and a Kalashnikov rifle in his cellar.
