Former German officer, suspected of links to far-right network, arrested in Italy

By Giada Zampano

ROME (AA) - Italy’s police on Wednesday arrested a 64-year-old former German army officer, suspected of being connected to a far-right group that was allegedly preparing to overthrow the government in Germany, according to a statement.

The statement said the man was arrested in a hotel in the city of Perugia of the central Umbria region, where they found “material related to the subversive activity."

It added that Italy has started the legal procedures to extradite the suspect.

According to German media, the far-right coup suspects had already planned their own government, with people picked for cabinet-like roles if they succeeded in overthrowing the elected Cabinet.

At least 25 people were under arrest, including 22 suspected members of a "terrorist organization," German prosecutors said. The conspiracy aimed at overturning "the existing state order in Germany based on democracy, using violence, and to replace it with their own state,” they added.

Several reservists of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) were among the suspects.

The so-called Reichsbuerger, or "citizens of the Empire," are nostalgic of the German Reich, do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and its laws, and support forms of community self-government at the local level.