Man arrested for plotting killings of German politicians

German police have arrested a man who allegedly made online calls on the darknet to kill politicians, including former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz, judicial sources said Tuesday.

The suspect, a German-Polish man only partially named as Martin S., was detained late Monday in the western city of Dortmund, prosecutors said in a statement.

A source close to the investigation told AFP the man had acted alone, was linked to a right-wing conspiracy theorist movement, and that Merkel and Scholz were among those on his hit list.

The man had allegedly issued anonymous calls since June for attacks on public figures and government officials, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said.

He also published instructions for building explosive devices and requested donations in cryptocurrencies, to be used as “bounties” for the killings.

Prosecutors said he had posted “death sentences pronounced by himself” as well as the “sensitive personal data of potential victims”.

He is being investigated on charges including financing terrorism and inciting violence aimed at endangering the state.

Martin S. was brought before a judge on Tuesday and placed in pre-trial detention, prosecutors said.

Spiegel Online reported that the 49-year-old suspect listed 20 targets, also including judges and prosecutors, on a site he had labelled “Assassination Politics”. The site was filled with far-right content and conspiracy theories, some related to the coronavirus pandemic.

German authorities have increasingly moved against a conspiracy theorist movement known as the “Citizens of the Reich” or “Reichsbuerger”.

The movement, which rejects the legitimacy of the modern German republic, was long dismissed as a group of malcontents and oddballs, but is now considered a security threat by German authorities.

In 2022, members of a group including an ex-MP and former soldiers were arrested over a plot to attack parliament, overthrow the government and install aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss as head of state.