Nine suspected members of a German far-right group accused of plotting to overthrow the government and install a minor royal as leader went on trial at a high-security courtroom in Stuttgart on Monday. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors will open their case against individuals tied to the <\/strong>Reichsb\u00fcrger (Citizens of the Reich) movement. In all, 27 people face charges, including high treason and belonging to a terror organization, but they will be tried in three separate <\/strong>courtrooms in different cities. <\/p>\n The plot to overthrow the government and install martial law was exposed in 2022. The nine defendants in court on Monday <\/strong>\u2014 including former soldiers and judges, as well as a member of parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) \u2014 are accused of participating in the \u201cmilitary arm\u201d of the Reichsb\u00fcrger, which espouses conspiracy-based theories regarding sovereignty and rejects the concept <\/strong>of the post-war German state. <\/p>\n The three trials together, across Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich, account for one of the biggest anti-terror cases in Germany\u2019s modern history. <\/p>\n Businessman Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss allegedly led the plot. The defendants were believed to have planned the resurrection of the German Reich through violence, storming the German Bundestag \u2014 the national parliament \u2014 and kidnapping the country\u2019s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. <\/p>\n Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss is a descendant of the House of Reuss, the former ruling family of parts of eastern Germany. <\/p>\n \u201cThe aim of the organization was to violently eliminate the existing state order in Germany and replace it with its own form of government, the main features of which had already been worked out,\u201d the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court said in a statement <\/strong>before the trial. <\/p>\n \u201cThe members of the group were united by a deep rejection of state institutions and the free democratic basic order,\u201c the court said, adding that the defendants had followed a \u201cconglomerate of conspiracy myths.\u201c <\/p>\n Those accused knew the \u201cviolent takeover would have involved killing people,\u201d the statement said. <\/strong> <\/p>\n In December, Germany\u2019s Federal Public Prosecutor General issued an indictment against the defendants, saying they \u201care accused of belonging to a terrorist organization founded at the end of July 2021.\u201d <\/p>\n All of the defendants are charged with participating in a terrorist organization and preparing a highly treasonous enterprise, according to the court. <\/p>\n Two of the defendants are accused of violating the Weapons and War Weapons Control Act. \u201cOne of these two defendants is also accused of attempted murder, dangerous bodily harm, resisting and assaulting law enforcement officers,\u201c according to the court. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nine suspected members of a German far-right group accused of plotting to overthrow the government and install a minor royal as leader went on trial at a high-security courtroom in Stuttgart on Monday. Prosecutors will open their case against individuals tied to the Reichsb\u00fcrger (Citizens of the Reich) movement. In all, 27 people face charges, including <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}