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Prepper process in Schwerin: body bags and slaked lime

2019-11-20T19:31:57.669Z


In Schwerin, a former SEK member is in court: The police officer is said to have illegally hoarded weapons and ammunition - for "Day X".



It should have been completely harmless. The body bags would have served only to protect their sleeping bags, the slaked lime for the construction of latrines. There is no talk of killings and mass graves. The many weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were exclusively for himself. "For nobody else, not for any group."

If you believe the insistence of Marko G., then his passion for weapons is just a little out of control. The accusation accuses the man right on the first day of negotiations. Assumptions that he is right-wing, he rejects.

"You are a police officer?"

The defendant enters the room 8 of the Schwerin district court in the morning with a friendly smile. Very upright he sits a little later in the dock. "You are a police officer?" Asks the presiding judge. "Correct," says Marko G. The 49-year-old is a trained sniper. Since 2004 he belonged to the Special Operations Command (SEK) of the State Criminal Police Office Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since Tuesday he has to answer to the 4th Grand Penal Chamber. He is said to have violated the War Weapons Control Act, the Weapons Act and the Explosives Act.

The prosecutor reads the indictment.

According to the elite police joined the end of 2015 the chat group "North". The group should belong to a nationwide so-called network whose members are preparing for the crisis. Marko G. should belong to the so-called prepper scene. The term goes back to the English verb "to prepare". Many preppers are harmless. However, there are also right-wing extremists who share the concern of a collapse of all order. They see Germany sinking into chaos in the foreseeable future, due to natural disasters, economic crises or war. In January 2016, Marko G. is said to have founded two other chat groups: "Nordkreuz" and "Nord.com".

More than 50,000 rounds of ammunition

At least 40 members are said to have enlisted Marko G. He is said to have informed them that "the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, among other things because of their practiced refugee policy would lose its monopoly on violence and the country could get into a serious social crisis". In order to prepare for this "Day X", Marko G. is said to have organized, among other things, shooting meetings. And, according to the prosecutor, he was responsible for getting ammunition and weapons for the group.

In August 2017, the investigators found numerous weapons and exactly 23,814 rounds of ammunition with him. Marko G. was allowed to own weapons and ammunition. But none that fall under the War Weapons Control Act.

In June 2019, the investigators were again found. This time they found weapons, explosives and 31,469 rounds of ammunition. The investigators have found so much ammunition that the prosecutor needs just under an hour to enumerate everything. Part of it is to fall under the War Weapons Control Act.

Uzi with silencer

The defender of Marko G. reads out a statement on behalf of the accused. In this G. admits to having possessed weapons and ammunition, which he should not have possessed. He also admits that in 2009 or 2010 he bought a submachine gun, a Uzi with silencer, from an unknown man for 500 euros in the parking lot of a gun fair in Kassel. He thought the weapon came from the Balkans. According to the indictment, she was stolen at the end of 1993 of the German Armed Forces in Brandenburg.

"Unfortunately, my fascination for weapons won," G. has his lawyer recite. The fact that the purchase was a "very stupid idea", he noticed only later. He had wanted to legalize the Uzi by an exemption from the Federal Criminal Office. But in the basement of the house of his parents-in-law, he had forgotten her at some point. He never wanted to use her. Similarly harmless-sounding explanations he has for further finds of the investigators.

Waffennarr with collecting passion

Marko G. draws the image of a gunman with a passion for collecting. As a SEC official, he was able to handle weapons. "That's why I did not take regulations so seriously at some point." He says, "In my self-image, I was one of the good guys." And regulations served to limit the evil. Today he sees his actions self-critical and regrets it.

Bernd Wüstneck / picture alliance

Schwerin district court: "Strategies for survival in the wilderness"

In their chat groups, members discussed "threat scenarios for internal security" and considered "strategies for surviving in the wild." It is the moment when he mentions the slaked lime and the body bags. For alleged death lists he says nothing in his explanation.

"But neither were I nor my comrades: politically"

The Federal Prosecutor's Office has been investigating two members of its groups for two years on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence which endangers the state. They are said to have seen the feared crisis as "an opportunity to arrest and kill with their weapons representatives of the left-wing political spectrum." For this they would have created a list with names. Marko G. is only listed as a witness in that case.

Nevertheless, his defender cited from a letter from the LKA, according to which "enemy or even death lists" could not be mentioned. The LKA had in the summer of 2019 stated: "A threat to the persons, institutions and organizations mentioned there is currently excluded, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office."

Right from the beginning, the judge emphasized that this process was all about the illegal possession and improper storage of weapons and ammunition. The subject of the indictment is not the question of the political orientation of Marko G.

About his defender, he still expresses himself. He had climbed into crisis scenarios. "We were certainly overcautious," explains Marko G. "But neither I nor my fellow campaigners were political." He stands firmly on the ground of the liberal democratic constitution. He is a critical, value-conserving person. Extremist tendencies are foreign to him.

Source: spiegel

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