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German police arrest 6 'neo-Nazis' over suspected terror plot

By Ed Adamczyk
Protesters hold a banner that reads "no entry for terror" in front of a statue of Karl Marx in Chemnitz where a man was stabbed to death on August 27. File photo by Filip Singer/EPA-EFE
Protesters hold a banner that reads "no entry for terror" in front of a statue of Karl Marx in Chemnitz where a man was stabbed to death on August 27. File photo by Filip Singer/EPA-EFE

Oct. 1 (UPI) -- German prosecutors said Monday authorities have arrested six people on suspicion they were planning a right-wing terrorist attack against immigrants.

Officials said the men, all between 20 and 31, are part of a far-right organization named Revolution Chemnitz, after the east German city where attacks on immigrants followed the Aug. 28 killing of a German citizen.

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An Iraqi suspect in the man's stabbing death was later released.

The arrested men "belong to the hooligan, skinhead and neo-Nazi scene in the Chemnitz area" and are regarded "leading figures in the right-wing extremist scene in Saxony," prosecutors said.

The group's alleged leader, identified as Christian K., was among 15 people arrested last month. The men arrested Monday were involved in the attacks in Chemnitz and used glass bottles, brass knuckles and electric impulse devices to injure those they regarded as foreigners, prosecutors said.

The mass attack was supposed to be a "test run" for a larger attack planned for Oct. 3, a national holiday celebrating Germany's 1990 reunification, officials said.

"According to the investigations so far, the accused, on the basis of their right-wing extremist outlook, pursue a 'revolutionary' goal aimed at overcoming the democratic constitutional state," the office said.

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The men are also believed to have attempted to obtain semi-automatic firearms.

The arrests follow numerous anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner demonstrations in the Chemnitz area.

"With the arrests and raids, we are sending a clear signal that we are identifying and breaking up such right-wing terrorist structures early," said Saxony Interior Minister Roland Wöller.

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