Suspected far-right extremist was on Germany’s radar for months — reports

BERLIN — German media reports that the main suspect detained last week as part of police raids on alleged far-right extremists had been on authorities’ radar for several months.

Der Spiegel reports that 53-year-old Werner S. from the Augsburg region was classified by the German security services as a potential violent threat.

The man, whose surname wasn’t released for privacy reasons, was among 12 men detained Friday in nationwide raids on suspicion of forming and supporting a “right-wing terrorist organization.”

A federal judge yesterday ordered the men held in investigative detention.

The Welt am Sonntag weekly reports today that the group referred to itself as “The Hard Core” and had links to a white supremacist group called Soldiers of Odin, founded in Finland in 2015.

German prosecutors allege the suspects wanted to achieve their goal “with as yet-unspecified attacks against politicians, asylum-seekers and Muslims to provoke a civil war-like situation.”

Authorities in Germany have warned of the growing threat of far-right extremism. Last June, a regional official from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party was killed by a suspected neo-Nazi. In October, a gunman with anti-Semitic views attacked a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle, killing two passersby.

— AP