Federal prosecutor's office takes over investigation into sabotage of the power grid

After a series of sabotage attacks on the German power grid, the Federal Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation against the suspect. Because of its special importance, the Karlsruhe authorities took over the case, said a spokeswoman. Among other things, it is about the suspicion of unconstitutional sabotage. “Spiegel” had previously reported.

A 48-year-old is said to have tried to sabotage power lines near coal-fired power plants in several locations in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony. In some cases he has succeeded. On Tuesday he was noticed by police officers during a major operation near the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen - and was arrested.

Short circuits caused by homemade rockets

According to the investigation, the man is said to have set up launchers and shot a wire over high-voltage lines with homemade rockets. This resulted in short circuits at least twice and individual units of nearby power plants were brought to a standstill. There was no damage to the population.

According to North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), the suspect wanted to continue his attacks. “He was still on the move and wanted to keep going. This game ended today,” said Reul on the day of the arrest. “At the moment everything suggests that it was a lone perpetrator and that everything was out of his hands.”

The Aachen district court has issued an arrest warrant and the man is in custody. The Cottbus public prosecutor's office accuses him, among other things, of causing an explosive explosion, disrupting public operations and destroying important work equipment.

Because responsibility on the investigator side has now changed to the Federal Prosecutor General, the 48-year-old will have to appear before the investigating judge again at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). A date for this was initially not known.

“Climate terrorism” as a motive?

The background to the search was two letters of confession that were received by several media companies and were also available to the German Press Agency. “The knowledge that is revealed in these letters is clear perpetrator knowledge,” said Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt at the end of last week.

Regarding the motive, the CSU politician said it was most likely “climate terrorism” by a lone perpetrator. A letter of responsibility states: “Generating electricity from fossil fuels is a crime.”

What is striking is that the affected locations are close to areas where brown coal is still being mined. According to the industry association Debriv, there is active opencast mining in Germany in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the south of Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt as well as in the east and west of Saxony.

After the sabotage actions became known, politicians from different parties and experts called for greater protection of the so-called critical infrastructure and, above all, the power grids in Germany.