The third trial begins today, Tuesday 18 June, in Munich, Germany paid by the Reichsbuerger organization, accused of hatching a plot to overthrow the state. Among the episodes there are a doctor, a famous chef and an astrologer accused of having been part of the group’s board of directors and, according to prosecutors, they would play the role of the future government if the plans for an assault on the Parliament building and the overthrow of the incumbent executive had succeeded.
The defendants in the dock – who deny any wrongdoing – are accused of belonging to a terrorist organization and of having carried out an act of high treason. The group planned to kidnap the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. The Munich trial takes place amid tight security as Germany grapples with fears over the rise of the far right following its recent success in the European elections and in the wake of a flurry of arrests of people accused of espionage for Russia and China.
Most of those involved were arrested in December 2022. This is one of the largest trials on terrorism charges in the history of democratic Germany, so it was decided to divide it into three smaller trials. At the center of the alleged conspiracy of the varied Reichsbuerger galaxy, i Citizens of the Reichwhich do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and its constitutional structures, is there Heinrich XIII Prince Reuß, a pseudo aristocrat and real estate agent whom the group intended to appoint as interim leader. He is on trial in Frankfurt along with other people considered to be among the leaders of the group.
Held in a maximum security court, the trial of the so-called esoteric wing of the group, like two others underway in Stuttgart for the so-called military wing and in Frankfurt am Main for the alleged “central nucleus” of the conspiracy, should last until January but, according to the public prosecutors, it may take years to complete.
Among the defendants called to answer the charges today, astrologer Hildegard Leiding, 60, destined to become the “minister of transcommunications” of the group. Leiding would have used “spiritual criteria” to choose the most suitable candidates for the future government, including a renowned Austrian cook, tasked with providing the new regime with a healthy diet, and a primary care physician, a doctor described by former patients as “established and respected” in her community. The woman, who is said to have become radicalized during the pandemic and also specialized in a method of predicting the future through reading eggs, known as oomancy, was expected to become health minister. He donated 47 thousand euros for the realization of the plotmost of which went to weapons training, according to prosecutors.
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