And they say that one Friday in the summer of 2016, Franco A. And they point to handwritten notes with the names of prominent politicians and activists. was firmly decided to commit a violent act. They quote from voice memos found on Franco’s phone, where he questions how Germany atones for the Holocaust, argues that immigration has ruined Germany’s ethnic purity, and says things like, I know you will murder me. But in their indictment, they’re making the case that Franco A. The lawyer was doubtful, but said he’d pass along the message. It took a maintenance man stumbling upon a gun in an airport bathroom to uncover it all.īack when I first started reporting on this case, I called one of Franco A.‘s lawyers to ask if Franco would talk. What’s most remarkable is that the German authorities had been utterly blind to him. Or even that he had lived a double life as a Syrian refugee. Or that his arrest opened the door to a country-wide network of people planning for Day X.
Not only that, as far as anyone I’ve talked to can remember, he’s the first active duty soldier to stand trial for plotting terrorism since World War II. But then they would blame refugees to be the perpetrators. He posed as a Syrian to make refugees responsible. Really, he’s a soldier in the Bundeswehr. And this was a so-called enemy list, to be killed, enemies to be killed. And it was a list of names, including the foreign minister, some intellectuals, some human rights activists, and my name, Claudia Roth. Franco A., a former Bundeswehr officer. I was informed by the federal criminal police office they had found the diary of Franco A. Transcript Day X, Part 2: In the Stomach To understand the far-right extremism still lurking in Germany’s shadows, we talk with two of the alleged targets of a plot to kill.