German officials arrest 25 in suspected coup plot

Thousands of German officers on Wednesday raided roughly 150 sites across Germany tied to a suspected terrorist organization, prosecutors said. In addition to the 25 arrested, another 27 people are under investigation. Prosecutors allege that the suspects formed a terrorist organization last year with the goal of overturning the current German government and replacing it with their own government. They were already founding a new state, prosecutors said. The suspects may have planned an armed attack on institutions of the state, said Justice Minister Marco Buschmann. 

Who are the suspects? The plotters are suspected to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement. German police have been watching the group because of links to violent attacks and the members’ racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories. The group also refuses to recognize the German government. Along with detentions in Germany, prosecutors said one person was detained in the Austrian town of Kitzbühel and another in the Italian city of Perugia.

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