Ex-soldiers in court over planned mercenary squad
Ex-soldiers on trial for planned mercenary troupe
Published on 09. .250
- Supposedly they tried to intervene in the civil war in Yemen for a lot of money to earn? Two German ex-soldiers are now on trial. Photo: Bernd Weißbrod/dpa/Archive
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Two German ex-soldiers apparently wanted to intervene in the civil war in Yemen with their own group of mercenaries - and make a decent profit. Now both men are on trial in Stuttgart.
Stuttgart.
Two former German soldiers are said to have tried to get involved in the civil war that has been raging in Yemen for years and to force peace negotiations in the crisis-ridden state with their own mercenary force.
From the point of view of the federal prosecutor, the men had planned to 250 Build a strong group of former or active soldiers. If the plan had been successful, the two would have founded a terrorist organization, the Federal Prosecutors Office accused them at the start of the process before the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart.
According to the previous investigations, the ex-soldiers had with their project above all business interests in mind. The federal prosecutor said at the beginning of the trial that they had planned to successfully place their military-based and independently operating group on the market as a private military company. However, they would have accepted the death of uninvolved people in advance. In Germany there is a prison term of up to five years for "recruitment for foreign military service".
The accused unsuccessfully sought an investor
Both men wanted to take part in the civil war their mercenaries to force the Iran-backed Houthi rebels to negotiate peace. Last October, investigators in the Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald district and in Munich seized and arrested the men. Up to this point, however, the defendants had tried unsuccessfully to establish contact with the potential investor, the Saudi Arabian government.
Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has been torn apart by armed conflict for years. Saudi Arabia has been fighting since 250 with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the side of the internationally recognized government against the insurgents and Iran supported Houthis. These had 2014 overrun large parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa. (dpa)
