The federal prosecutor's office has obtained arrest warrants against two men who are said to have tried to set up a mercenary force.

The two were arrested in the early hours of the morning in Munich and in the Calw district.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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According to the Federal Prosecutor General, the two accused Arend-Adolf G. and Achim A. made the decision at the beginning of the year to “set up a mercenary force under their exclusive command.

The primary driving force behind this project for the two accused was the prospect of a targeted monthly mercenary wage of around 40,000 euros for each member of the unit, ”said the Federal Prosecutor's Office.

The paramilitary force of the two former members of the Bundeswehr should include between 100 and 150 men, who, in the opinion of the law enforcement agency, should primarily be former members of the Bundeswehr or former police officers.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office evaluates this as an attempt to found a terrorist organization in accordance with Section 129 of the Criminal Code.

The accused Arend-Adolf G. is said to have been responsible for the recruitment; he had already contacted at least seven people in order to win them over to the mercenary troops.

Riyadh did not respond

A first concrete plan was to intervene in the civil war in Yemen and to force peace negotiations between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government.

To this end, the two former soldiers tried “persistently to enter into a dialogue with those in charge of the government of Saudi Arabia over a longer period of time”.

The project failed because, to the knowledge of the investigators, there were no reactions to the contact attempts.

Literally it says: “The efforts were all unsuccessful because the government agencies of Saudi Arabia contacted showed no reaction to the accused.

Nevertheless, the two did not give up on their project.

The intended establishment of a terrorist organization has not yet been implemented. "

According to a report in the magazine Der Spiegel, the two men, former paratroopers, have already appeared in connection with the security company "Asgaard", G. was at times its managing director.

The company also worked for Saudi Arabia in Iraq.

The two men are to be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice during the day, who will decide whether they should be in custody.