Germany: Anti-government extremist group strong in Bavaria


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BERLIN (AP) — Bavarian authorities say about one in four known members of an anti-government extremist group live in the southern state and they're investigating whether there are even more.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Wednesday that 3,850 members of the so-called Reich Citizens' Movement live in the state and about 1,400 others are being investigated for links, the dpa news agency reported.

Intelligence officials have said there are about 16,500 people overall who adhere to the loose grouping that refuses to acknowledge the authority of Germany's post-war federal republic, including 900 who are considered right-wing extremists.

German authorities have expressed growing concern about the group, which has been compared to the U.S. sovereign citizen movement and has been linked to several crimes including the killing of a police officer in 2016.

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