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CRIME

Suspected neo-Nazi charged with plotting German ‘race war’

German federal prosecutors said Wednesday said they had charged a suspected neo-Nazi with attempting to set off a "race war" in Germany with planned attacks using explosives and guns.

"Attorney General at the Federal Supreme Court" is written on a sign at the entrance to the Federal Prosecutor's Office building. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christoph Schmidt

A week after authorities swooped on alleged far-right militant cells in raids across Germany, the federal prosecutor’s office named the suspect only as Marvin E. and said he had been in detention since September 2021.

Marvin E., whose age was not provided but who was a minor at the time, now faces charges of attempting to form a terrorist organisation, as well as preparation of a grievous seditious attack and various weapons law violations.

Prosecutors said in a statement that he “shares the ideology” of Atomwaffen Division (Atomic Weapons Division, AWD), an international neo-Nazi terrorist network founded in 2015 in the United States.

READ ALSO: Germany stages country-wide raids against ‘neo-Nazi networks’

Marvin E. intended from the summer of 2021 to launch “a civil race war” over the next three years “to preserve the white population”, they said.

He is believed to have researched the acquisition of firearms and built “unconventional” bombs with components bought online, while seeking to start his own local chapter of AWD and recruit members.

AWD is believed to espouse “racist, anti-Semitic and National Socialist views” and plot attacks against Jews, Muslims and other purported enemies with an aim of destabilising Western democratic states.

Last week’s raids also targeted suspected members of the group and other far-right extremist organisations, leading to four arrests.

In what Der Spiegel magazine called “the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in the recent past”, the federal prosecutor’s office said more than 1,000 officers raided the homes of 50 suspects in 11 states.

READ ALSO: Germany searches 100 suspects over political hate speech

Germany’s centre-left-led government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz took office in December pledging a decisive fight against far-right militants after criticism that the previous administration had been lax on neo-Nazi violence.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said when she was appointed that her top priority would be tackling the country’s “biggest threat: right-wing extremism” after a series of deadly far-right attacks.

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POLITICS

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

German officials said on Thursday they had raided properties as part of a bribery probe into an MP, who media say is a far-right AfD lawmaker accused of spreading Russian propaganda.

Germany raids properties in bribery probe aimed at AfD politician

The investigation targets Petr Bystron, the number-two candidate for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in next month’s European Parliament elections, Der Spiegel news outlet reported.

Police, and prosecutors in Munich, confirmed on Thursday they were conducting “a preliminary investigation against a member of the German Bundestag on the initial suspicion of bribery of elected officials and money laundering”, without giving a name.

Properties in Berlin, the southern state of Bavaria and the Spanish island of Mallorca were searched and evidence seized, they said in a statement.

About 70 police officers and 11 prosecutors were involved in the searches.

Last month, Bystron denied media reports that he was paid to spread pro-Russian views on a Moscow-financed news website, just one of several scandals that the extreme-right anti-immigration AfD is battling.

READ ALSO: How spying scandal has rocked troubled German far-right party

Bystron’s offices in the German parliament, the Bundestag, were searched after lawmakers voted to waive the immunity usually granted to MPs, his party said.

The allegations against Bystron surfaced in March when the Czech government revealed it had bust a Moscow-financed network that was using the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site to spread Russian propaganda across Europe.

Did AfD politicians receive Russian money?

Czech daily Denik N said some European politicians cooperating with the news site were paid from Russian funds, in some cases to fund their European Parliament election campaigns.

It singled out the AfD as being involved.

Denik N and Der Spiegel named Bystron and Maximilian Krah, the AfD’s top candidate for the European elections, as suspects in the case.

After the allegations emerged, Bystron said that he had “not accepted any money to advocate pro-Russian positions”.

Krah has denied receiving money for being interviewed by the site.

On Wednesday, the European Union agreed to impose a broadcast ban on the Voice of Europe, diplomats said.

The AfD’s popularity surged last year, when it capitalised on discontent in Germany at rising immigration and a weak economy, but it has dropped back in the face of recent scandals.

As well as the Russian propaganda allegations, the party has faced a Chinese spying controversy and accusations that it discussed the idea of mass deportations with extremists, prompting a wave of protests across Germany.

READ ALSO: Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

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