Seven Germans described by the authorities as belonging to the “hooligan, skinhead and neo-Nazi scenes” in eastern Germany have been arrested on suspicion of building a far-right terrorist organization called Revolution Chemnitz — named for the city that was rocked by recent street clashes — the country’s federal prosecutor said Monday.
Six men, all Germans aged 20 to 30, were arrested on Monday. They are suspected of acting under the leadership of the seventh man, who has been in police custody since Sept. 14, when the federal authorities opened their investigation, the prosecutor, Peter Frank, said in a statement. The group was at first seen only as a criminal organization, he said, but further evidence, including the intent to procure semiautomatic weapons, led investigators to suspect terrorism.
The arrests come just weeks after violence broke out in Chemnitz, where far-right extremists clashed with the police at demonstrations after a German man was fatally stabbed after trying to intervene in a dispute between two recent immigrants. A Syrian man remains in detention on suspicion of the killing.
It was not clear when the group began referring to itself as “Revolution Chemnitz,” or whether the men chose that name because of the unrest there.