Does the history of German mercenary need to be rewritten? From Congo-Müller to Yemen-Achim? Or is the Yemen adventure, for which two Germans have just been arrested - Arend-Adolf G. (60) and Achim A. (64) - actually a "terror command" (BILD) or rather the wet dream of affluent German pensioners in the much-cited "retirement", who want to be handsomely paid by Saudi Arabia to help with the pacification of Yemen - HERE is a brief history of the civil war -? We don't know. The two had already approached seven men from their 150-strong group who were supposed to go victorious to Yemen, where at least 150,000 people are involved in the civil war with Houthis, Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida, and the Islamic State as parties.

Here we document the statement of the Attorney General regarding the arrest:

Arrest due to urgent suspicion of attempting to establish a terrorist organization

Year2021
DateOctober 20, 2021

Arrest due to urgent suspicion of attempting to establish a terrorist organization

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, early this morning (October 20, 2021), based on warrants from the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice dated October 18, 2021,

arrested the German citizens Arend-Adolf G. as well as
the German citizen Achim A.

in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald and in Munich by special forces of the Federal Police. In addition, searches of the suspects' apartments were initiated in Munich and in the district of Calw. Furthermore, premises of four non-suspects were searched in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. The police investigations are being conducted by the Federal Criminal Police Office.

The suspects are urgently suspected of attempting to establish a terrorist organization (§ 129 Abs. 2, § 129a Abs. 1 Nr. 1, Abs. 4, §§ 22, 23, 25 Abs. 2 StGB).

The arrest warrants essentially charge the suspects with the following facts:

At the beginning of 2021, Arend-Adolf G. and Achim A. made the joint decision to set up a mercenary group under their exclusive command. The primary motive behind this plan for the two suspects was the prospect of an intended monthly mercenary wage of around 40,000 euros for each member of the unit.

According to the suspects' plans, the paramilitary unit established by them was supposed to consist of between 100 and 150 men, mainly former members of the Bundeswehr or former police officers. The two suspects were former soldiers of the Bundeswehr and therefore have military knowledge and skills. Arend-Adolf G., responsible for the recruitment and enlistment of the mercenaries according to the joint plan, had already contacted at least seven individuals to recruit them for their plan. After successfully establishing their mercenary group, the two suspects wanted to intervene in the ongoing civil war in Yemen through combat actions. Arend Adolf G. and Achim A. intended to "pacify" the war-torn area in Yemen and force peace negotiations between the Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government.

Concerning the deployment in Yemen, the two suspects were aware that the unit under their command would inevitably have to carry out killings during their operation. They also anticipated that civilians would be killed and injured in connection with combat actions. In addition to the specific mission in Yemen, the suspects had planned in the medium term to operate the unit as a so-called private military company and to be available for operations in other conflicts as well.

According to the suspects' idea, the financing of the plan should come from third parties, preferably Saudi Arabia. In this context, Achim A. persistently tried for a longer period to engage in a dialogue with officials of the Saudi Arabian government. He made various efforts to establish a communication channel with Saudi government officials and to obtain a meeting for presenting their proposal. However, all these efforts remained unsuccessful, as the contacted Saudi Arabian government agencies did not show any response to the suspects. Nevertheless, the two did not give up on their plan. The intended establishment of a terrorist organization has not been implemented so far.

During the course of today (October 20, 2021), the suspects will be presented to the Investigative Judge at the Federal Court of Justice, who will decide on the execution of pretrial detention.

On the same day, the warrant was issued.

THE FEDERAL PUBLIC PROSECUTOR on the Internet