The trial heard the plotters intended to create ‘conditions similar to civil war’ and also planned to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.
Five members of the terrorist organization United Patriots were convicted on Thursday of plotting to overthrow the German government and kidnap the former health minister.
Four members, arrested in April 2022, were sentenced to between five years and nine months and eight years by the Koblenz Higher Regional Court. A fifth defendant received a sentence of two years and 10 months.
The four men and one woman were accused of founding or being members of a terrorist organization and preparing a “high treason plot” against the German government.
Their full identities were not disclosed, as is common under German law. The court identified them in 2023 only as Michael H., 44; Thomas K., 51; Sven B., 55; Thomas O., 56; and Elisabeth R., 75.
During the trial, federal prosecutors said the United Patriots intended to create “conditions similar to civil war” by using explosives to cause nationwide blackouts.
They also plotted to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. The minister supported strict lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In April 2022, Lauterbach told a press conference those who intended to abduct him were a small minority but “highly dangerous.”
“This shows that COVID protests have not just radicalised but that this is about more than just COVID,” Lauterbach said at the time.
The trial heard there were no indications that the group was close to mounting a coup.
Prosecutors said the group had procured weapons and money, and this showed they were “dangerous criminals who wanted to implement their plans.”
They said United Patriots was linked to the Reichsbürger (Reich citizens) group that rejects the legitimacy of Germany’s 1949 constitution, the Basic Law or Grundgesetz.
Reich is a German word meaning empire or realm.
On the website of the BfV, one of Germany’s intelligence services, it states, “‘Reichsbürger’ and ’selbstverwalter‘ (literally, ’citizens of the Reich’ and ’self-administrators’) are groups and individuals who for various motives and on various grounds … reject the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system, deny the legitimacy of its democratically elected representatives or claim that the German legal order does not at all apply to them.”
The BfV states that “only a small percentage … are also right-wing extremists. The majority display few elements of right-wing extremist ideology, if any.”
It later adds, “Regardless of this, it is especially the anti-state and conspiracy-related arguments put forward by these individuals that facilitate compatibility with antisemitic ideas, which also play an important role in right-wing extremism.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
