Daily Finland
A man with far-right links has admitted to calling for attacks on senior German politicians including former chancellors Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz on the first day of his trial in Dusseldorf on Monday. The 50-year-old German-Polish national admitted to having made anonymous calls on the so-called dark web for attacks on named politicians, public officials and public figures in Germany. He told the court that the platform he created for the purpose had been intended as "mere provocation." Asked by the presiding judge who he had wanted to provoke, the man said: "Well, you." Besides Merkel and Scholz, other high-profile figures targeted include Annalena Baerbock who served as foreign minister in the previous centre-left administration. The defendant appeared particularly interested in officials linked with the coronavirus pandemic, including former health ministers Jens Spahn and Karl Lauterbach and top virologist Christian Drosten. Jan Böhmermann, a well-known comedian and host of a popular political satire show, was also on the list. Prosecutors accuse the defendant of calling for donations in cryptocurrency to be able to offer bounties as an incentive for others to kill those on his hit list. The man, who was detained in the western city of Dortmund in November, faces charges of terrorist financing, incitement to commit terrorist attacks and other criminal offences. He is believed to be part of Germany's extremist Reich Citizens scene - a diffuse group of people who do not recognize the authority of the current system of government - and known to police over his attendance at far-right demonstrations. Prosecutors have described the man as a "staunch adherent of Nazi racial ideology" which he combines with radical libertarian principles. He is believed to be in favour of denying fundamental rights to Jews and migrants, and excluding them from elections. In order to destabilize the state, he created a platform called "Assassination Politics" on the dark web, where he called for attacks on judges, police officers, and prominent politicians, according to the indictment. Prosecutors who took action against a far-right extremist figure and a senior member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party were also included on the list. The man is also accused of publishing sensitive data of more than 1,000 people, including former economy minister Robert Habeck and his family. He is believed to have published instructions on how to make fertilizer bombs, detonators and fuses, as well as on the production of napalm as part of his campaign to "incite political assassins to carry out independent murderous attacks," said the representative of the Office of the Attorney General when reading out the charges. The trial is being held at the high-security wing of the Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court. Clad in a light grey tracksuit, the defendant portrayed himself as a victim of the justice system at the start of the trial, accusing lawyers of betraying him and police officers of abusing him. Born in Poland, the man studied computer science in Germany and worked as a software engineer for a bank over the last five years. He has previous convictions for resisting law enforcement officers, insulting others, criminal damage and incitement to hatred. The man told the court that he had become increasingly politically radicalized after starting to watch YouTube channels in 2017, which led him to become part of the far-right scene in Dortmund, where he met well-known figures in the movement.
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