© P Photo/Michael ProbstThe defendant identified only as 1st Lt. Franco A. due to German privacy rules, walks to a court for the start of a trial on charges of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, May 20, 2021.
A German army officer who posed as a Syrian asylum-seeker went on trial Thursday accused of plotting to kill prominent politicians and blame the attack on refugees.
Federal prosecutors say the defendant, identified only as 1st Lt. Franco A. due to German privacy rules, acted out of far-right extremist motives. The case has raised concerns about extremism in the country's military.
Before his trial in Frankfurt's regional court, the 32-year-old defendant denied that he had planned to carry out any attacks, the dpa news agency reported.
His lawyer, Moritz Schmitt-Fricke, claimed that his client was the victim of a smear campaign and denied that he had far-right leanings, citing his interest in punk music as evidence.
Franco A. came to the attention of authorities after he was arrested in February 2017 while going to retrieve a pistol he had stashed in a Vienna airport bathroom. He was freed, but Austrian authorities informed Germany. When the soldier's fingerprint matched the one he'd given to register as an asylum-seeker, it triggered the investigation.
Prosecutors alleged that the defendant's targets included then-Justice Minister Heiko Maas and the Jewish head of an anti-racism organization. He had stockpiled four firearms including an assault rifle, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition and more than 50 explosive devices, some stolen from military stores, they said.
Comment: From an earlier Yahoo! News
report:
In one of the most puzzling and disturbing cases to grip Germany in recent years, Lt Franco Albrecht, who was once entertained as a guest of the British army at Sandhurst, lived a double life for more than a year.
He disguised himself with make-up and a false beard and commuted hundreds of miles every week between his army barracks and the refugee accommodation where he was known as David Benjamin, a Christian from Syria. Prosecutors allege he was creating a false identity as part of a plan to assassinate a public figure and blame it on a Syrian refugee in order to foment civil unrest and bring down Angela Merkel's government.
Lt Albrecht denies the terror charges and says he was conducting his own private research to highlight the shortcomings of the German asylum system and the ease with which it could be fooled. As evidence, he has pointed to a number of documentary-style videos he made while staying at the refugee accommodation.
When his case first came to trial in 2018, the court ruled there was no evidence to support the terror charges and dismissed them.
© PrivateLt Franco Albrecht (left) alongside British cadets at Sandhurst in 2014.
There are no formal pleas in the German legal system but Lt Albrecht and his family have made clear in media interviews that he intends to fight the terror charges .
His double life finally caught up with him at Vienna airport in February 2017, when he was caught trying to retrieve a gun he had hidden in a lavatory there. He told Austrian police he had found it while attending a military ball in Vienna and planned to hand it in to the authorities, but forgot about it and panicked when he remembered he was carrying it at the airport.
But when Austrian police checked his fingerprints they found he had two identities — one as Lt Albrecht, and the other as David Benjamin, the Syrian asylum-seeker. The Austrians handed this information over to their German counterparts and an investigation was opened which prosecutors allege found Lt Albrecht had a history of far-Right sympathies and links to "prepper" movements inside the German military.
"Preppers" are survivalists who believe the breakdown of civilised society is imminent and prepare or "prep" for it by hoarding weapons.
He was arrested in April 2017 and a large quantity of ammunition was found stored illegally at his mother's house.
Prosecutors allege the gun he was caught trying to retrieve in Vienna, a historic French handgun made some time between 1928 to 1944, was the weapon with which he intended to carry out a series of assassinations.
Investigators also uncovered what prosecutors say is a "death list" of high-profile German figures among his possessions, including the names of Heiko Maas, the foreign minister, Claudia Roth, a Green Party politician, and Anetta Kahane, a Jewish activist. They found photographs Lt Albrecht had taken inside the underground car park of Ms Kahane's offices.
Lt Albrecht denies the names are a death list and says they were people he wanted to contact. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
Mouth shut; check around with other attorneys.
R.C.