GDisciplinary proceedings are underway against the arrested judge and former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. This was initiated by the district court of Berlin, said Justice Senator Lena Kreck (left) on Thursday the RBB Inforadio. The court had previously stated that the 58-year-old had left civil chamber 19a, which is responsible for building matters. It will now be “physically difficult” for the judge to pursue her profession, said Senator Kreck. She repeated that the Senate administration would use all means to “remove” the accused completely from the judiciary.
Appropriate steps have been taken, said Kreck. An appeal was lodged with the service court at the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG) against a decision by the Berlin Administrative Court. In October, the latter refused to retire Malsack-Winkemann because of her political speeches about refugees in the Bundestag and other statements.
Malsack-Winkemann was arrested on Wednesday in the course of a major raid against a “Reich Citizens” group for plans to overthrow. According to the federal prosecutor, she is in custody. She was one of the 19 suspects against whom the arrest warrants were executed by the evening. You are therefore in custody. For more, this could happen on Thursday.
BKA speaks of 54 suspects
On Wednesday, the federal prosecutor had arrested a total of 25 people in eleven federal states as well as in Italy and Austria. She accuses 22 of them of being a member of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system in Germany. BKA President Holger Münch named on Wednesday evening in the ZDF “heute journal” the number of now 54 accused and spoke of more than 150 searches. Weapons were also found in around 50 objects. Münch expected further suspects and searches in the next few days. Around 3,000 officers were involved in the raids on Wednesday.
According to the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, the security authorities had had their sights set on the “Reich Citizens” group since the spring and had a very clear overview of their development and plans. The plans then became more and more concrete and weapons were procured, said Haldenwang in a ZDF “special”. He emphasized: “The German security authorities as a whole had the situation under control at all times. But if it had been up to this group, then the danger was quite real.”
“We assume that the people were determined”
BKA chief Münch said they didn’t want to wait until the last moment, but wanted to collect enough evidence that it was a terrorist organization. There is still no clarity about the time of the obviously planned coup. However, the BKA president referred to a “council” that makes decisions and a military arm that also procures weapons. “They don’t wait until the last moment. But when that is then clear, then it also means: Strike.”
Attorney General Peter Frank also defended the timing of the raids. There had been discussions within the association as to whether certain events from outside could not have been reason to strike, said Frank in an ARD “Focal Point”. “We assume that the people in the association were determined and also were sure to do something,” he emphasized. It was right to take action now in December and put an end to the association.
Terrorism expert Peter Neumann has no doubts about the group’s danger. The greatest danger of terrorist violence emanates from so-called Reich citizens, Neumann told the editorial network Germany. “They are capable and willing to carry out serious acts of terrorism against the state,” he warned. “They formulate resistance narratives most clearly and claim to have the right and legitimacy to mount armed resistance against the state,” said the expert.
The CSU interior expert Andrea Lindholz sees a “new quality” in the willingness to use violence in the scene. “Reichsbürger” and self-governers are “anything but harmless cranks and conspiracy theorists”, said the deputy head of the Union faction of the “Rheinische Post”.
Faeser: “Take a closer look again”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also warned against underestimating the group. What makes them so dangerous is that “there was a military arm of it. With people who used to be in the Bundeswehr, so they can also handle weapons,” said the SPD politician on the ARD program “Maischberger”.
Authorities that deal with weapons, such as the Bundeswehr or the Federal Police, have to “take a closer look,” she said. President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Haldenwang, spoke in the ARD “Tagesthemen” in favor of a security check that all people who are admitted to the federal and state security agencies should go through.
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier expects further arrests after evidence such as mobile phones has been evaluated. The SPD politician said on Thursday on Deutschlandfunk. In Thuringia, the AfD is already being observed for suspected anti-constitutional efforts. Maier accused the AfD of functioning as an interface for right-wing extremist organizations.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) also said on Deutschlandfunk that he expected further actions against the Reichsbürger scene. The raids had shown that the rule of law was defensive.
US government offers Germany help
The US government offered support to the German government after the raid. “We remain in close contact with our partners in government and stand ready to help if asked,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday when asked whether the United States would allow Germany to join the government Offer example intelligence information on this matter.
We applaud the diligence of the German government and its law enforcement agencies in the fight “against violent extremism” and for the “security of their citizens and government institutions.”
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