On suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization, the room of a politician active in the AfD in Ilmenau was searched. To secure evidence, the man’s apartment and two other properties were searched, as a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office in Jena confirmed to the German Press Agency. The portal “inSüdthüringen” previously reported. An arrest was not planned, the spokesman said.
Investigation into Lauterbach’s kidnapping plot
The search was in connection with an investigation into a plot to kidnap former Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). The man sits on various political advocacy groups for the AfD, but is not a member of the party.
An investigation by the Thuringian Prosecutor’s Office is underway against him because he is suspected of supporting the so-called “Emperor Group”, the spokesman said. The investigation was conducted, among other things, on suspicion of aiding and abetting in the preparation of a treason operation against the federal government.
Right-wing terrorist “Kaiserreichsgruppe”
The so-called “Emperor Group” (also known as the “United Patriots”) is a right-wing terrorist organization founded no later than January 2022 with the aim of eliminating the basic order of free democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany and replacing it with an authoritarian system of government modeled on the Constitution of the German Empire of 1871.
To achieve this goal, the group planned certain violent actions such as explosive attacks on energy supplies, the kidnapping of Lauterbach and spying on railway signal boxes.
In March this year, four of the group’s leaders were sentenced to several years in prison by the Koblenz Regional Court of Appeal.
