Germany detains second soldier suspected of planning ‘extremist’ attack

German police on Tuesday detained a second soldier suspected of involvement in a plan by an army officer and a student to carry out an attack, possibly on politicians who do not oppose immigration, the federal public prosecutor said.

Prosecutors believe the three suspects wanted to implicate asylum seekers in their planned attack, in a case that has shocked Germans and stirred a debate about the depth of right-wing radicalism in the country’s military.

The prosecutor’s office named the third suspect in the case as Maximilian T., a 27-year-old German national.

“The accused is strongly suspected of planning a severe act of violence against the state out of a right-wing extremist conviction,” it said in a statement.

Former president Joachim Gauck and Justice Minister Heiko Maas were on a list of possible targets prepared by the suspects, who wanted to make their attack look like the work of Islamist militants, the prosecutor’s office added.

The first soldier and the student, identified respectively as Franco A. and Mathias F., were detained on April 26.

Maximilian T. was initially a witness in the case, but became a suspect after police searched several residences in Germany and France on April 26, broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk reported.

 

Read the whole story from Reuters.