German police were accused of using excessive force as they broke up a pro-Palestinian protest camp outside the Bundestag parliament building in Berlin, where several demonstrators were reportedly arrested.
Published On 29 Apr 2024
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Nine suspects will take the stand in Stuttgart for attempting to install minor aristocrat and businessman Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss.
Nine suspected members of a German far-right group accused of plotting to overthrow the government are set to go on trial.
German prosecutors will open the hearing in the southwest city of Stuttgart on Monday. The nine suspects are accused of plotting a violent coup to install minor aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss as Germany’s leader and imposing martial law.
The case claims that the defendants – including former soldiers and judges, as well as a member of parliament for the far-right Alternative for Germany – participated in the “military arm” of the German Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich), which espouses conspiracy-based theories regarding sovereignty.
The plot unravelled in late 2022 when police launched a series of raids. Charges include high treason.
One person faces an additional charge of attempted murder related to shots fired at police officers, who were injured in the confrontation, as they searched Reuss’s home in March last year.
A total of 27 defendants are accused of plotting the violent overthrow of the German government while accepting the likelihood that people would die. The plan was to install Reuss as the head of a new form of government.
The hearings will be split among three courts across three cities.
The Stuttgart trial is to focus on the group’s military wing, which is charged with attempting to overthrow the state by force of arms. According to the charges, they had started forming 280 armed units.
Prosecutors say the suspects’ meticulous planning and stocks of firearms and cash show they were a real danger, Reuters news agency reported.
“They planned to infiltrate an armed group into the parliament building in Berlin, detain legislators and bring down the system,” they wrote. “They understood that seizing power would involve killing people.”
The accused, aged between 42 and 60, are alleged to have joined the association in 2022 and have been active in various roles for the military wing.
The alleged plotters – including right-wing hardliners and gun enthusiasts – espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbuerger scene, according to prosecutors.
Similar to the “sovereign citizen” movement in the United States and other far-right, conspiracy-based movements in Europe, Reichsbuergers believe they are citizens of an earlier state – in this case, the pre-World War I German Reich – which has been usurped by modern political structures.
Reichsbuerger groups are driven by “hatred of our democracy”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said before the start of the trial.
“We will continue our tough approach until we have fully exposed and dismantled militant Reichsbuerger structures,” she added.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Activists in Pakistan called out the German ambassador’s alleged hypocrisy for speaking at a human rights forum while Germany stifles criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza. The pro-Palestinian demonstrators were quickly removed from the Asma Jahangir Conference by authorities.
Published On 28 Apr 2024
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue in universities across the United States, as they also spread to schools in Europe and Australia.
In the second week of protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, thousands of students are calling on dozens of universities to divest from Israel.
Some universities have been forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies, while others have seen entire buildings occupied by protesting students.
One of the latest to join the movement is The City University of New York (CUNY), where hundreds of students have set up an encampment on campus with banners with slogans like “No More Investment in Apartheid”.
Gabby Aossey, a student organiser at the CUNY protest told Al Jazeera the mobilisation of young pro-Palestinian people in the US is “beautiful to see”.
“Young people are really starting to show up and demand that schools are held accountable for their relationship with the Israeli colonisation,” Aossey said.
Across the US, university leaders have tried, and largely failed, to quell the demonstrations. The police have intervened violently, with videos emerging from different states showing hundreds of students – and even faculty members – being forcefully arrested.
At Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested by armed police officers on campus about a week ago, university leaders said in a statement on Friday that if the university calls the New York Police Department again, it would “further inflame what is happening on campus”.
Some university leaders and state officials have strongly condemned the protests, calling them “anti-Semitic”.
Demonstrators reject the accusation, with many Jewish activists and some Orthodox Jews joining the ranks.
“As a child of Holocaust survivors, it disturbs me to my core to see my own people perpetrating something that we’ve been through,” Jewish antiwar protester Sam Koprak told Al Jazeera at a campus gathering.
The protests, which have sprouted all around the globe in the near seven-month period since the start of the war on Gaza, continue to spread this week outside the US as well.
In Berlin, activists set up a camp in front of parliament to demand the German government stop exporting arms to Israel. At the renowned Sciences Po university in the French capital Paris, protesters on Friday blockaded a central campus building, forcing classes to be held online.
The latest pro-Palestine rally in Sweden on Saturday saw people marching in the streets to chants of “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israel”.
Hundreds gathered on Saturday afternoon in central London in solidarity with Palestinians, with a smaller group organising a pro-Israel event.
“People are gathering here on Parliament Square just outside the houses of parliament for the latest in a series of very major protests in the heart of London,” said Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from London.
Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an organiser of the march, said he expected hundreds of thousands to attend from across the United Kingdom.
“Once again, we are delivering a double message. One is to the Palestinian people, a message of solidarity. We see you, we hear you, we stand with you,” he said.
The second message, Jamal said, is addressed to the British political establishment “to end their complicity with Israel’s genocide against Palestinian people”.
Jamal dismissed critics saying that protests have been anti-Semitic.
“This tactic of conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the State of Israel is a very familiar one, and is used globally by Israel to silence those who are advocating for Palestinian rights,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rina Shah, a Washington-based political strategist and former senior congressional aide, said protests in US universities are a display of democracy in action, a welcome sight in an election year marked by concerns of voter apathy chiefly due to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“So when I see a movement like this of students taking peaceful, non-violent action and expressing their concern about the US government backing of Israel, of where our tax money is going, I think that’s extremely healthy,” she told Al Jazeera.
“These students are out there concerned about America’s role in backing [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, we are supplying weapons and funds to do what he wants to do in Gaza, while on the other we are sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is the hypocrisy these students are concerned about.”
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Worries over efforts to sway upcoming EU elections rise, with MEP Krah also probed over Russian influence operation.
German police have arrested an aide to a far-right Member of the European Parliament on suspicion of spying for China.
Prosecutors announced on Tuesday that Jian G is believed to have repeatedly passed information on the workings of the European Parliament to China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). The arrest spurred warnings in Europe that democracy is under threat ahead of EU elections in June, while provoking anger in Beijing.
The German authorities did not specify which politician employed the arrested man. However, media reported that the German national was an aide to Maximilian Krah.
The MEP is the lead candidate for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for the upcoming European Parliament election. Krah is on a list of populist politicians across Europe suspected of taking bribes to push pro-Russian narratives in a scheme uncovered by Czech intelligence earlier this month.
Jian G was arrested in Dresden late on Monday and his apartment was searched, prosecutors said. As well as reporting on negotiations and decisions of the European Parliament in January, he also allegedly spied on Chinese opposition figures in Germany.
Berlin’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the spying allegations were “extremely serious”.
“If it is confirmed that there was spying for Chinese intelligence from inside the European Parliament, then that is an attack from inside on European democracy,” she declared in a statement.
“Anyone who employs such a staff member also carries responsibility,” she added. “This case must be cleared up precisely. All the connections and background must be illuminated.”
The AfD said in a short statement that the arrest was “very disturbing”.
“As we have no further information on the case, we must wait for further investigations by federal prosecutors,” said spokesman Michael Pfalzgraf.
China’s foreign ministry dismissed the reported arrest, accusing unnamed forces of efforts to smear Beijing and wreck bilateral relations.
“The intention of this kind of hype is very obvious … it is to smear and suppress China and to destroy the atmosphere of cooperation between China and Europe,” a spokesman said.
The reports of Jian G’s detainment came hours after Germany arrested three others accused of spying for MSS.
Regarding that incident, the Chinese embassy in Berlin declared that Beijing carries out no espionage activities in Germany. It accused Berlin of trying to “manipulate the image of China and defame China”.
On the same day, however, the United Kingdom announced that it had arrested two men on suspicion of providing “prejudicial information” to Beijing.
The series of arrests comes shortly after Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China to discuss economic relations and to push for Beijing to drop its support for Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.
Berlin has warned recently about increasing attempts by Moscow and Beijing to secure political and economic influence, and German intelligence agencies have called for broader powers.
In reaction to Jian G’s arrest, MEPs called for the European Parliament to accelerate a continuing probe into foreign influence in a bid to guard against interference in early June’s vote.
“We demand preliminary results before the elections,” said Green MEP Terry Reintke. “Autocracies like China and Russia are actively trying to undermine our democracies in Europe.”
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
The alleged spies have been working with Chinese agents for at least two years, authorities say.
Germany has arrested three people suspected of supplying sensitive technologies to China.
Prosecutors said on Monday that the German nationals handed technologies with potential military purposes to Chinese intelligence, with whom they have been working since before June 2022.
The arrests come as Western states continue to express concern over China’s economic and geopolitical policies.
The trio is also accused of exporting a special laser without permission, which was pinpointed as violating the country’s export laws.
The federal prosecutor identified the main suspect as Thomas R, who was described as an agent for a China-based employee of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). Herwig F and Ina F – a married couple who run a company in Dusseldorf – were recruited to procure cooperation from researchers.
Through their company, the couple concluded a cooperation agreement with a German university, part of which involved preparing a study for a Chinese contractor on machine parts that can be used for operating powerful marine engines such as combat ships, the statement said.
The Chinese contract partner was the same MSS employee from whom Thomas R received his orders, and all three suspects worked together, Monday’s statement added.
The suspects also purchased a special laser from Germany on behalf of and with payment from the MSS and exported it to China without authorisation, according to the prosecutors.
German authorities accused the suspects of violating the country’s Foreign Trade and Payments Act which criminalises economic espionage.
German authorities said the alleged cooperation with the Chinese state service began around “an indeterminable date before June 2022”.
All three will be arraigned at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, southwest Germany on Tuesday, and could face a fine or imprisonment of up to five or 10 years, according to local media.
The arrests come just days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited China, during which he pressed Beijing to guarantee German firms equal market access and also conveyed concerns in Europe about Beijing’s economic policies and support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the arrests “a great success for our counterespionage”.
“We are keeping an eye on the significant danger from Chinese espionage in business, industry and science,” she said in a statement. “We are watching these risks and threats very closely and have warned and sensitized people clearly so that protective measures can be stepped up everywhere.”
Berlin announced on Thursday that it had arrested two German-Russian dual nationals on suspicion of plotting sabotage attacks on US military sites in the country, in a bid to undermine Western military support for Ukraine.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Germany’s prosecutors are accusing the German-Russian nationals of being prepared to ‘carry out explosive and arson attacks’ on the country’s US military sites.
Germany has arrested two German-Russian dual nationals on suspicions that they were plotting sabotage attacks on US military sites in the country to undermine Western military support for Ukraine.
German prosecutors said on Thursday that the two men, identified as Dieter S and Alexander J, were arrested a day earlier in the town of Bayreuth in the southeastern state of Bavaria after their homes and workplaces were searched on suspicion of “having worked for a foreign intelligence service”.
They said in a statement that Dieter was in contact with an interlocutor linked with the Russian secret service, and exchanged information that was gathered.
Alexander began assisting him from March 2024, the prosecutors added.
Dieter’s secret communication started in October last year, and he was prepared to “carry out explosive and arson attacks” on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany, including facilities of the US military.
Dieter and Alexander allegedly scouted a number of targets, taking photos and videos of military transports and goods, among other things, which were passed on to the Russian contact.
According to Der Spiegel, a German magazine, the facilities included the Grafenwoehr army base in Bavaria where Ukrainian soldiers receive training to use US Abrams tanks.
German authorities said Dieter was active in eastern Ukraine between December 2014 and September 2016 as a fighter in an armed unit of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), a Moscow-backed breakaway region of Ukraine that was annexed by Russia in 2022, and possessed a firearm in this context.
Dieter faces an additional charge of belonging to “a foreign terrorist organisation” for his activities in Ukraine.
The arrests come amid intense fighting more than two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Germany one of the biggest suppliers of military aid to Ukraine.
“Our security authorities have prevented possible explosive attacks that were intended to target and undermine our military assistance to Ukraine,” German interior minister Nancy Faeser said.
“It is a particularly serious case of alleged spy activity for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s criminal regime.”
The announcement of the arrests on Thursday coincided with a surprise trip to Ukraine by German economy minister Robert Habeck to offer more support.
Habeck is also expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has repeatedly bemoaned a lack of strong air defences as Russian attacks increasingly target energy infrastructure.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Several allies warn against an escalation after Iran’s weekend attack on Israel increases fears of wider regional war.
Several Western countries have urged Israel to avoid an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East as the war cabinet debates how to respond to Iran’s weekend attack on the country.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned his war cabinet for the second time in less than 24 hours on Monday over Iran’s missile and drone attack.
“We’re on the edge of the cliff and we have to move away from it,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.
“We have to step on the brakes and reverse gear.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Foreign Secretary David Cameron made similar appeals, echoing calls for restraint by Washington and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“Neither the region nor the world can afford more war,” Guterres said late on Sunday. “Now is the time to defuse and de-escalate.”
Russia has refrained from criticising its ally Iran in public over the strikes, but expressed concern about the risk of escalation on Monday and also called for restraint.
“Further escalation is in no one’s interests,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Belgium and Germany summoned the Iranian ambassadors over the attack, in which Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles that the Israeli military said were nearly all intercepted.
Most of the missiles and drones were shot down by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system and with help from the US, Britain, France and Jordan.
The attack came in response to an Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus on April 1, which killed seven members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, including two generals.
Fears of regional escalation
Tehran’s retaliatory attack on Israel has increased fears of open warfare between Israel and Iran, and heightened concerns that violence will spread further in the region.
Wary of the dangers, US President Joe Biden has told Netanyahu that Washington will not take part in any Israeli counteroffensive against Iran.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October, clashes have erupted between Israel and Iran-aligned groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
Israel says it is seeking to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas after it led an attack on Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli statistics, and taking around 250 others hostage.
More than 33,500 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza, according to Palestinian authorities, and large parts of the territory have been reduced to rubble. Aid agencies have warned that parts of Gaza are facing a looming famine amid severe Israeli restrictions on supplies of food and humanitarian aid.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Germany says it will hand over Patriot air defence system and missiles, while Russia claims capture of another village.
Germany will deliver a United States-made Patriot air defence system and air defence missiles to Ukraine at a “critical time” as Kyiv struggles to defend its energy system from Russian bombardment, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
More than two years into its full-scale invasion, Russia has staged three massive air attacks on power stations and substations in recent weeks, prompting Kyiv to issue desperate appeals for supplies of high-end air defences.
“I am grateful to the chancellor for the decision to supply another, additional Patriot system to Ukraine, as well as missiles for the existing air defence systems,” Zelenskyy said after speaking by telephone with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday.
He described their conversation as “important, productive” and said: “I call on all other leaders of partner states to follow this example.”
Germany will hand over the Patriot system immediately and it will be in addition to air defence systems that were already delivered and planned, the German defence ministry said in a post on X.
An April 10 German government summary of arms and military equipment transfers to Ukraine included two Patriot systems on a list of air defence supplies already delivered, making this the third from Germany.
Zelenskyy said last week that Ukraine needed 25 US-made Patriot air defence systems to protect the country from Russian attacks.
After the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022, Germany dropped a traditionally pacifist stance and has become Ukraine’s second-biggest supplier of military aid, after the US.
As well as Patriots, Berlin has supplied a wide array of other armaments, ranging from artillery to armoured fighting vehicles.
On the front lines, “the situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days”, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said in a statement on Saturday.
This comes as Russia claimed the capture of a village near the industrial town of Avdiivka that it captured in mid-February.
Russia’s defence ministry announced its troops had “liberated” the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11km (seven miles) west of largely destroyed Avdiivka.
Ukraine has not confirmed the loss. Its army said on Friday that it had repelled attacks on the village.
On his Telegram channel, Syrskii wrote of “a significant intensification of the enemy’s offensive after the presidential elections in Russia” last month.
The commander-in-chief, who took over in February after Zelenskyy fired his popular predecessor General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, added decisions were being taken “to strengthen the most problematic defence areas with electronic warfare and air defence”.
Meanwhile, in the southern Zaporizhia region, a local Kremlin-installed official blamed Ukraine on Saturday for a shelling that killed 10 people, including children.
The Tokmak municipal administration reported on Telegram that the shelling struck three apartment blocks on Friday evening.
Five people were pulled alive from the rubble and 13 were hospitalised, according to the regional head, Yevhen Balitsky. The town fell to Russia at the start of the invasion.
Ukrainian authorities in Zaporizhia said Russia had attacked the region more than 400 times over the last day, including from planes.
Ukraine has also said the situation around the eastern front-line city of Chasiv Yar is “difficult and tense” with the area under “constant fire”.
Chasiv Yar lies 20km (12 miles) west of the town of Bakhmut, which was flattened by months of artillery fire before it was captured by Moscow last May.
Russia is recently securing new territorial gains and trying to press onward against Ukrainian units hobbled by delays in the supply of Western military aid.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
Police in Berlin interrupted and cancelled a pro-Palestine conference soon after it started, hours after one of the main speakers said authorities held him up at the airport and prevented him from entering Germany.
Officers initially halted the Palestine Congress because another speaker was subject to a ban on political activity in Germany, police wrote on the social media platform X on Friday.
Police did not give the name of the speaker, but participants in the congress wrote on X that it was Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta.
Police later wrote on X that they had banned the remainder of the conference, which was being attended by about 250 people and due to last until Sunday.
They said there were risks that same speaker would be invited to talk again, accusing him of having made “anti-Semitic” statements in the past.
Berlin police just canceled the entire Palestine Congress. I was the only speaker that successfully finished a speech.
Salman Abu Sitta was cut off after 1 minute. Our livestream ended and electricity cut off.
This is Germany. pic.twitter.com/07NUCpownv
— Hebh Jamal (@hebh_jamal) April 12, 2024
On the Congress’s website, the organisers denounce Israel’s crimes in Gaza, saying: “Together, with the voices of the Palestinian movement and the international community, we will denounce Israeli apartheid and genocide. We accuse Germany of being complicit.”
Berlin police said they had dispatched 930 officers, including reinforcements from other regions of Germany, to secure the event.
One of the main speakers, Ghassan Abu Sittah, a British Palestinian doctor, had earlier been denied entry into Germany to attend the event, he said.
“The German government has forcibly prevented me from entering the country,” Abu Sittah posted on X.
The doctor, who volunteered in Gaza hospitals during the first weeks of Israel’s war, said he arrived at Berlin airport on Friday morning before being stopped at passport control, where he was held for several hours and then told he had to return to the UK.
Airport police said he was refused entry due to “the safety of the people at the conference and public order,” Abu Sittah told The Associated Press.
An event organiser, Nadija Samour, told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, “There is absolutely no legal basis for this, no justification at all. [Abu] Sittah is the dean of the University of Glasgow. I can’t imagine that he’s a dangerous person or a person who incites violence. Quite the opposite.”
Abu Sittah added on X that barring him from the event was “silencing a witness to genocide before the ICJ adds to Germany’s complicity in the ongoing massacre.”
Invited to address a conference in Berlin about my work in Gaza hospitals during the present conflict.
The German government has forcibly prevented me from entering the country
Silencing a witness to genocide before the ICJ adds to Germany’s complicity in the ongoing massacre.— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) April 12, 2024
In a case at the top UN court brought by Nicaragua, Germany is facing accusations of aiding genocide in Gaza by selling arms to Israel, whose war has killed more than 33,600 people since October 7.
Germany is one of Israel’s biggest military suppliers, sending 326.5 million euros ($353.7m) in equipment and weapons in 2023, according to Economy Ministry data.
There was “pressure from the federal government” to cancel the Palestine Congress, organiser Samour told Anadolu, adding that Germany was “actively and illicitly” trying to impede the event.
She also accused Berlin of intentionally delaying the start of the congress, citing technical reasons as a pretext.
“The congress could not be banned. Freedom of assembly protects the congress, which is precisely why the police came up with all sorts of harassment,” she said.
The crowd waiting to enter the hall on Friday chanted slogans including “Viva, Viva Palestine” and “Germany finances, Israel bombs”. Some waved Palestinian flags outside the building.
Police in Berlin have taken a generally tough stance towards pro-Palestinian protests since the start of the war in Gaza. Authorities have put strict conditions on demonstrations or banned them outright.
Protesters and critics have accused authorities of violating democratic freedoms of speech and assembly with the crackdowns.
Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook
Original Source
