Nine men go on trial for plotting coup in Germany

A group of men accused of plotting a violent coup against the German state were well advanced in plans to establish a nationwide military structure to crush any opposition, a court heard yesterday.

- THOMAS ESCRITT

Their willingness to use violence was shown by the way one of their number, gun enthusiast Markus L, unleashed a hail of bullets on police officers arriving to arrest him, causing one of them life-altering injuries, prosecutors said.

The nine men on trial are part of a network of 27 people, subscribers to the esoteric Reichsbuerger(‘citizens of the Reich’) belief system, who prosecutors accuse of seeking to install an aristocrat as Germany‘s ruler.

The hearing marks the start of three marathon trials of 27 people in total. They are accused of conspiring in the plot, foiled by authorities at the end of 2022.

Filing into the maximum security courtroom in Stuttgart, the nine suspects, some wearing fleeces, others in shirts, looked glum as they took their seats behind thick panes of glass separating them from their lawyers, though some were buoyed by seeing smiling family and friends in the public gallery.

The suspects in one of the largest criminal cases in German history had been held incommunicado until they met in court, being housed in detention centres spread across southwest Germany. Some had been roused long before dawn for the long journey to the courtroom, where they occasionally dozed.