When special forces approached the right-wing terrorist suspects in the dark on Wednesday morning, some TV cameras were there to film the operation. “Some representatives of the press had known about the raid for two weeks,” says Left MP Martina Renner. The extremism expert considers it irresponsible that the information was spread so widely in advance.
ntv.de: The action against the alleged terrorist group around the prince and the AfD woman was very visually powerful. Colleagues were able to position themselves beforehand…
Martina Renner: I myself have known about it since the middle of last week, and I also know about several media that have been aware of it for two weeks. The names of the suspects were known, their address and the planned time of access.
Even the names were known?
Yes. The plans for the raid were classified as secret by the Attorney General. So no unauthorized third parties should learn about it, so as not to jeopardize the investigations. However, secrecy is difficult if the target persons and times are given beforehand. There was a risk that an action that had been planned for months would ultimately go wrong.
Apparently, everyone who was wanted on the arrest warrant could be arrested, and nobody escaped. According to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, this success indicates “that nothing came out beforehand”. Do you agree with her?
No, that cannot be judged at all at the moment. The members of the group consider their actions, including the planned violence, to be legitimate. They fantasize about a “right to resistance” that is supposed to justify the terror. It would not necessarily fit that you then flee from the police and go into hiding. In order to assess whether the revolutionaries knew before the raid, the confiscated data carriers and other material will first have to be evaluated. If material was deleted there in a conspicuous way, things disappeared, then that would suggest that the suspected terrorists expected the raid.
What other risks does access that is communicated in advance involve?
Anyone who risks the data about an access leaking through to the suspect also risks that he might step out the door in the morning with a gun. The past has shown that it is to be feared that Reich citizens will defend themselves against arrest – even with weapons. A total of 3,000 officers were and are now involved in the raid, not all of whom are special forces. Whoever spread the data about this intervention so openly endangered the emergency services.
On what grounds would a member of an authority involved or the authority itself take such a risk?
The information was so widely spread that it looked like a PR campaign. This can serve as proof of work for the responsible authorities and ministries. It shows that politicians are not only adopting plans of action against the right, but are also successfully countering the threat of terrorism. But that bears absolutely no relation to the risk that arose as a result for the operation and the emergency services. Defense against terrorism must be carried out by state agencies with the utmost sensitivity, under no circumstances should it become a show.
Frauke Niemeyer spoke to Martina Renner
