Nine of the suspects, all German nationals, are accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation that was founded in July 2021 with the aim of “doing away by force with the existing state order in Germany”, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

Prosecutors said the accused believed in a “conglomerate of conspiracy myths”, including Reich Citizens and QAnon ideology, and were convinced Germany was ruled by a so-called “deep state”.

Adherents of the Reichsbürger, or Reich Citizens movement, reject Germany’s postwar constitution and have called for bringing down the government, while QAnon is a global conspiracy theory with roots in the US.

A year later, far-right extremists taking part in a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions tried and failed to storm parliament.

In a separate case, five people went on trial in May over an alleged plot by a group calling itself United Patriots – which prosecutors say is also linked to the Reich Citizens scene – to launch a far-right coup and kidnap Germany’s health minister.

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