German far-right extremists arrested last week ‘plotted large-scale mosque attacks similar to Christchurch massacre in New Zealand’
- The 12 far-right extremists were arrested in raids across Germany early on Friday
- They planned to imitate the Christchurch shooter who killed 51 people last year
- German investigators had been tracking the group’s meetings and chat activity
A gang of German far-right extremists who were arrested last week were plotting mosque attacks similar to last year’s atrocity in New Zealand, officials said today.
The 12 men were detained in raids across Germany last Friday and ‘shocking’ details of their plans have since emerged.
The suspected terror plotters were planning major attacks including mass-casualty assaults on Muslims during prayers, it is believed.
The group planned to use semi-automatic weapons to copy last March’s attacks in Christchurch in New Zealand, where 51 people were killed at two mosques.
A suspected German far-right extremist is bundled into a van by masked federal police officers in Karlsruhe after the gang was arrested
‘It’s shocking what has been revealed here, that there are cells here that appear to have become radicalised in such a short space of time,’ interior ministry spokesman Bjoern Gruenewaelder said in Berlin today.
Investigators learned about the plot from someone who had infiltrated the group, the reports said.
Their meetings and chat activity had been under observation and the alleged leader had detailed his plans at a meeting last week.
According to German newspaper Bild, the ringleader was a 53-year-old from Augsburg named by investigators as Werner S.
‘It is the task of the state, and of course of this government, to protect free practice of religion in this country, with no reference to what religion it might be,’ Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
‘Anyone practising their religion in Germany within our legal order should be able to do so without being endangered or threatened’.
Prosecutors said on Friday they had launched early morning raids to determine whether the suspects already had weapons or other supplies.
Of the 12 men arrested on Friday, four are believed to have founded the group while eight more had promised to support them with money and weapons.
One of the suspects (wearing the blue jacket) is hauled to his arraignment at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe on Saturday
The suspects, all of whom are German citizens, also included a police officer previously suspended over his links to the far right, North-Rhine Westphalia state interior minister Herbert Reul said on Friday.
Bild claimed to have identified him as Thorsten W, a 50-year-old medieval history enthusiast whose posts online included pictures of himself with a sword and shield and rants describing Germany as a ‘radical left dictatorship’.
German authorities have turned increased attention to the country’s underground extreme right scene since the murder of conservative local politician Walter Luebcke last June.
In an October attack on a synagogue in Halle, an assailant armed with home-made weapons killed two people at random on the street and in a Turkish restaurant after failing to breach the temple’s solid wooden door.
Interior ministry spokesman Gruenewaelder said police have identified around 50 extreme right adherents as ‘dangerous’ individuals who could carry out a violent attack, compared with 660 Islamists and fewer than 10 far-left extremists.
In the summer of 2019, authorities arrested more than 30 people linked to a neo-Nazi movement called ‘Northern Cross’.
They were suspected of planning to murder a number of leftwing and pro-migrant figures after ordering body bags and quicklime, a chemical often spread at mass grave sites, regional newspaper group RND reported.
On Monday, Gruenewaelder said that the latest arrests ‘prove that the security services are remaining vigilant’.