Mhe police and prosecutors carried out a large-scale raid on Wednesday against climate activists from the “Last Generation” group. Around 170 officers searched 15 apartments and business premises in seven federal states from early in the morning, as announced by the Munich public prosecutor and the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office. The charge is to form or support a criminal organization.
It is determined against seven suspects who are between 22 and 38 years old. Initially, there were no arrests. According to the investigators, two of the suspects are suspected of having tried to sabotage the Trieste-Ingolstadt oil pipeline in April 2022.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the investigations and searches are based on numerous criminal charges. The group regularly attracts attention with sit-ins and actions in museums. The members often stick to the streets or works of art.
Climate activists reacted with sharp criticism. The group “Ende Gelände” criticized on Twitter that there were raids on those “who warn about the climate crisis and not on those who are responsible for it”. The “Last Generation” itself asked on Twitter when lobby structures would be searched and “fossil government funds” confiscated.
Fundraising allegations
According to the police and the Attorney General’s Office, the central allegation in connection with the searches is that the accused organized a fundraising campaign to finance further crimes for the “last generation” and thus collected at least 1.4 million euros. According to previous knowledge, this money was “predominantly also used for committing other crimes”. Where the money came from is the subject of the investigation. The police did not initially say how much of it was confiscated. The aim of the searches was also “to find evidence of the membership structure,” it said.
There were searches in seven federal states, specifically in Hesse in the Fulda district, in Hamburg, Saxony-Anhalt (Magdeburg), Saxony (Dresden), Bavaria (Augsburg and Munich), Berlin and in the Segeberg district in Schleswig-Holstein. According to initial information, the missions went without incident. The group’s website was also confiscated and shut down on orders from the public prosecutor’s office.
In recent weeks there have been drastic developments for the “last generation”. Motorists punched and kicked the demonstrators and dragged them off the road, and the Potsdam Regional Court confirmed initial suspicions that the group could be a criminal organization for the first time. Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also extremely critical this week and called the group’s sticking actions “completely crazy”.
The activists initially called for a “food save law” against food waste. The current demands are 100 km/h on motorways and a permanent 9-euro ticket for public transport.
The investigations are based at the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism. However, a spokesman for the Munich public prosecutor’s office emphasized that this does not mean that the “last generation” is classified as extremist or terrorist. “According to the current state of investigation, we assume that it is a criminal organization – mind you, not a terrorist one,” said the spokesman. We want this to be checked in court.
The German police union welcomed the searches. “The judiciary is taking action, that’s the right signal from a defensive constitutional state,” said union boss Rainer Wendt in Berlin.
#generation #Nationwide #raid #total #objects