Germany charges 5 people with "high treason"

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's public prosecutor said on Monday that prosecutors have brought treason charges against five people who planned to kidnap the health minister and were willing to shed blood in order to overthrow the German government.

The prosecution said in a statement that the group, which was formed in mid-January 2022, set itself the goal of "creating by violence conditions similar to the civil war in Germany, in the hope of overthrowing the government and parliamentary democracy."

The statement said the group acknowledged that this may have involved loss of life.

The five have been in custody since last year, when the authorities first revealed details of the plot.

According to the prosecution, the suspects made increasingly concrete preparations and formed two separate branches of their group, one military and the other administrative. In a three-step plan, they wanted to cause a power outage across Germany, kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, kill his bodyguards if necessary, and then form Council to overthrow the government and appoint a new leader for Germany.

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