German authorities have swooped on alleged neo-Nazi militant cells and arrested four suspects as the country pursues a forceful crackdown on far-right extremists.
In what Der Spiegel magazine called “the biggest blow against the militant neo-Nazi scene in the recent past”, the federal prosecutor’s office said more than 1,000 officers had raided the homes of 50 suspects in 11 states.
“The four men arrested are accused of membership of a rightwing extremist criminal organisation,” it said in a statement, adding that some had also received other charges, including grievous bodily harm.
Spiegel reported that one of the suspects was a non-commissioned officer in the German armed forces.
The suspects targeted on Wednesday were believed to belong to the far-right martial arts group Knockout 51, the banned Combat 18, named after the order in the alphabet of Adolf Hitler’s initials, the US-based Atomwaffen Division or the online propaganda group Sonderkommando 1418.
Germany’s centre-left-led government under chancellor Olaf Scholz took office in December pledging a decisive fight against far-right militants after criticism that the previous administration had been lax on neo-Nazi violence. » | AFP in Berlin | Wednesday, April 6, 2022
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