Dresden. The Dresden Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against a KSK soldier who found illegal weapons and explosives in his garden in Collm (North Saxony district). The investigative authority announced in Dresden on Wednesday that the member of the Bundeswehr Special Forces Command (KSK), a 45-year-old sergeant major, was accused of violating the Weapons Act and the Explosives Act.
During a search of his property in May of this year, among other things, an assault rifle including ammunition and two kilograms of explosives were found. The indictment was reportedly submitted to the Leipzig Regional Court.
The accused is still in custody and, according to the information, has not yet commented on the allegations. The motive is still unclear, said agency spokeswoman Nicole Geisler. So far, there is no information about the involvement of other members of the Bundeswehr.
The Dresden lawyer Andrej Klein, one of the defenders of the accused, announced in a media release that the original suspicion against his client of having acted for right-wing extremist motives or of being part of a right-wing extremist network had arisen despite extensive evaluations of electronic media and the questioning numerous witnesses not substantiated. Otherwise the soldier would have been charged before a state security chamber.
Defense attorney criticizes detention conditions
The responsible criminal chamber will now also have to check whether the 45-year-old must remain in custody. The defense had intervened for months against the tightened detention conditions, so-called special security measures. According to Klein, the soldier was in solitary confinement, was never allowed to leave his cell without handcuffs and ankle cuffs and was always accompanied by three male servants – even when showering.
The lights in the cell were turned on every hour and the cell was searched every day. The 45-year-old was not allowed to work or exercise outside of his cell. The soldier even had to sit behind a partition to meet the defense lawyers.
According to Klein, the Dresden correctional facility (JVA) justified its measures with “the pretext of an alleged risk to itself or others”. As a member of a special unit, the prisoner has been trained as a lone fighter and thus endangers the security of the prison. In addition, the soldier could “fraternize” with prison staff.
The tightened measures were only last week in the context of a detention complaint by the Dresden Regional Court as “excessive and illegal to a large extent,” said defense attorney Andrej Klein. (with dpa)
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