German lawmakers quiz minister over army terror plot

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - Pressure mounted on Germany’s defense minister on Wednesday amid a widening scandal around a suspected far-right terror cell within the country’s army.

Thomas Oppermann, a senior Social Democrat Party (SPD) lawmaker, sharply criticized Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, accusing her of making grave mistakes and calling on her to take responsibility for the scandal.

On Tuesday, two weeks after the authorities uncovered the far-right network, police arrested a second soldier, a lieutenant identified as Maximilian T, in the southern German town of Kehl.

He was arrested on suspicion of helping fellow suspects -- another lieutenant identified as Franco A. and a student, Mathias F. -- in planning a serious attack which would have targeted senior politicians or other public figures.

Oppermann said German military officials should have identified the far-right tendencies of these soldiers earlier and should have timely taken disciplinary action.

“Franco A. and his companions had already made themselves noticeable; there was no way of overlooking them. Nevertheless, the authorities looked away. Therefore the minister must take responsibility,” he told reporters at the German parliament in Berlin.

Amid the widening scandal, parliament’s defense committee held an extraordinary meeting with Von der Leyen, which was closed to the public.

Agnieszka Brugger, a lawmaker from the opposition Green Party, also criticized the defense minister and top military officials.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Brugger said the far-right sympathies of Franco A. were known to his superiors, as he had openly expressed these during his studies in the military.

The second suspect, lieutenant Maximilian T., had been monitored in the past by military intelligence for suspected far-right views, she added.

“All these happened during the term of the minister. A master’s thesis, which clearly included racist, extremist views … did not have any consequences for this soldier. The theft of a serious amount of ammunition -- apparently nobody had noticed,” Brugger said, demanding a full inquiry into the scandal.

Franco A. and his friend Mathias F. were arrested late last month after police discovered the lieutenant had been living a double life for more than a year as a Syrian refugee under a fake name.

Federal Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Frauke Koehler told a news conference on Tuesday the suspects were believed to have been planning a serious act of violence which they could then blame on refugees.

She confirmed the names of former President Joachim Gauck and Justice Minister Heiko Maas were on a list of potential targets prepared by the suspects, who wanted to reverse the government's open-door policy for refugees.

Franco A. first caught the attention of the authorities in February when he tried to hide a pistol in a restroom at Vienna International Airport in Austria.

At that time, he was briefly arrested but later released by the Austrian authorities.

During searches at the suspects’ apartments last month police found 1,000 rounds of ammunition from army stocks.

Far-right groups have viewed the German government's open-door policy for refugees as a national security threat.

Since 2015, Germany received more than 1.1 million refugees, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, who were forced to flee their homes due to conflict.

The foiled terror plot has sparked a public debate in Germany about poor oversight within the army and a lack of strong penalties against far-right extremists convicted of crimes.

The Defense Ministry had informed parliament last month it was investigating 275 suspected right-wing extremists in its ranks.