Suspects in alleged plot to topple the German government arrive to court at start of trial

Описание: (21 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frankfurt - 21 May 2024
1. Various of cars arriving, police
2. Police van driving past special temporary courthouse set up as Frankfurt state court (OLG)
3. Barbed wire, sign in the background, imprint (German) reads "Frankfurt am Main state court"
4. Police officers
5. Police van, pan to police officers walking past
6. Armed police officer
7. Pan of journalists waiting outside
8. Wide of police officers at one of the entrances, behind barbed wire
9. Mid of police officers
10. Pan of building with police deployed in front
11. Barbed wire, windows in the background
12. Various of police van, officers
13. Barbed wire, with Frankfurt skyline in the background
14. Surveillance cameras
15. Police officers
16. Pan of police and journalists at entrance
17. Close of sign, reading (German): "Frankfurt am Main state court"
18. Police officers standing in front of entrance door
19. Entrance
20. Barbed wire
21. Various of police and journalists outside building
STORYLINE:
The alleged leaders of a suspected far-right plot to topple the German government are going on trial in Frankfurt on Tuesday, opening the most prominent proceedings in a case that shocked the country in late 2022.

Nine defendants will face judges at a special temporary courthouse built to accommodate the large number of defendants, lawyers and media dealing with the case.

About 260 witnesses are expected at a trial that the Frankfurt state court expects to extend well into 2025, one of three related trials that in total involve more than two dozen suspects.

The defendants include the highest-profile suspects in the alleged plot, among them Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, whom the group allegedly planned to install as Germany’s provisional new leader; Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a judge and former lawmaker with the far-right Alternative for Germany party; and former German military officers.

Most of them are charged with belonging to a terrorist organization that was founded in July 2021 with the aim of “doing away by force with the existing state order in Germany,” and also with “preparation of high treasonous undertaking.”

Reuss and another suspect, a former paratrooper, are alleged to have been the group's ringleaders.

Prosecutors have said that the accused believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy myths,” including Reich Citizans and QAnon ideology, and were convinced that Germany is ruled by a so-called “deep state.”

AP video shot by Pietro De Cristofaro and Daniel Niemann

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