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CRIME

Hollywood arsonist accused of 100 fires

Los Angeles prosecutors have announced 63 more charges against a German man accused over a four-day arson spree which gripped Hollywood over the year-end holidays.

Hollywood arsonist accused of 100 fires
Photo: DPA

Harry Burkhart, 24, was originally charged with 37 counts in connection with 12 fires over New Year, in a spree allegedly triggered by anti-American anger over his mother’s fight against extradition to Germany.

On Tuesday the 63 further charges were added, bringing the total to 100 criminal accounts involving 49 fires.

Authorities say Burkhart launched the attacks, which caused millions of dollars in damage but no serious injuries, the night after making a foul-mouthed anti-US tirade at a court hearing for his mother on December 29. Most of the fires affected cars, but some buildings were also damaged.

His mother Dorothee Burkhart is wanted in Germany on 19 counts of fraud, notably for failing to repay security deposits to apartment tenants and defrauding a Frankfurt cosmetic surgeon out of some $10,000 for breast augmentation surgery.

In addition, state prosecutors in the town of Marburg, Hesse, are investigating whether Harry Burkhart is responsible for a fire in the small town of Homberg.

LA prosecutors allege that Burkhart went on a “binge” of arson attacks fired up by anti-American “hatred” fuelled by his mother’s fight against deportation to Germany.

“The string of fires terrorized residents of Hollywood and the Westside,” said District Attorney Steve Cooley at the time.

Harry Burkhart was reported as appearing confused at his initial hearing at the beginning of January, and his mother has described him as mentally disturbed.

AFP/DAPD/The Local/bk

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CRIME

Germany charges sixth suspect in health minister kidnap plot

German prosecutors said Wednesday they had charged a sixth suspect in a far-right plot to kidnap the health minister and overthrow the government in protest against Covid-19 restrictions.

Germany charges sixth suspect in health minister kidnap plot

The 61-year-old man was charged with “the preparation of a treasonous enterprise and membership in a terrorist organisation”, Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement.

The group intended to strike several parts of the energy grid to provoke a “nationwide power outage lasting several weeks” that would provide cover for a coup attempt, investigators said.

The alleged plotters planned to abduct Health Minister Karl Lauterbach “at gunpoint”, potentially killing his bodyguards in the process.

During the coronavirus pandemic, some of the fiercest opponents of the government’s anti-virus measures were far-right activists who reject Germany’s democratic institutions.

Lauterbach had become a hate figure for the group because of the pandemic restrictions including the requirement to wear facemasks in public places that he had ordered.

“The kidnapping of a high-ranking federal government official was intended to demonstrate the group’s determination and capabilities,” prosecutors said.

The latest suspect was said to have “participated in meetings of the group and worked on the concretisation of the plans”.

The man allegedly declared himself ready to participate in the kidnapping of Lauterbach, prosecutors said.

He also offered his garage in the region south of Frankfurt to a group ringleaders as a weapons store, investigators said.

The senior plotter was arrested in April 2022 and the arms – two AK-47 assault rifles and four Glock pistols – were never deposited.

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The new suspect also offered to “sail” to Russia after the planned coup “as a member of a delegation to negotiate an ‘alliance’ with Russian state authorities and to procure military equipment”, prosecutors said.

Five other members of the group went on trial in Koblenz in May 2023.

The group intended to replace the government with an authoritarian system “modelled on the constitution of the German Empire of 1871”, according to investigators.

The belief that the German government is illegitimate is current among members of the far-right Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which has attracted a growing number of followers.

The organisers of another alleged far-right plot to topple the government were arrested in raids at the end of 2022.

The trial of the suspected ringleader, the aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, will open in Frankfurt in May.

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