Sabotage on power grid in Brandenburg: confessional letter under examination
Following an attack on a power supply installation near Jänschwalde, a confessional letter has emerged. Police are investigating on suspicion of forming a terrorist organisation.
Confessional letter to power grid attack in southern Brandenburg emerges
Following the sabotage attack on the power grid near the Jänschwalde power plant, a confessional letter has been received, according to DER SPIEGEL (Justice & Crime). Police are examining its authenticity. "The authenticity of the letter is the subject of further investigation and can neither be confirmed nor denied at this time," a police spokeswoman said. She left open when a result could be expected.
Investigators continued their operations at the switching station in Turnow-Preilack in the morning. State road 50 was closed again for several hours, leading to traffic disruptions. By midday, police announced: "The operational measures on site have been concluded."
The authorities are investigating, among other things, the formation of a terrorist organisation. Multiple tips from the public have been received and are currently being evaluated.
Homemade flying objects as means of attack
Unknown perpetrators used homemade flying objects — similar to New Year's Eve fireworks — to direct conductive material towards the high-voltage power lines on Tuesday morning. More than a dozen such devices have been secured so far. According to the network operator, there was no power outage.
Hours after the incident in Brandenburg, a disturbance was also reported at a switching station in Bergheim near Cologne. Authorities there also found launching devices and pyrotechnics. Brandenburg's Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) said on this: "The signs are pointing to the fact that both attacks are part of a coordinated assault on our energy supply."
North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) agreed with this assessment. "By now we are fairly certain that there are many parallels," Reul said on Wednesday evening in the ZDF "heute journal".
Background: left-wing extremism or foreign involvement?
In previous sabotage acts, security authorities suspected left-wing extremist perpetrators, also because corresponding confessional letters were classified as authentic. According to Redmann, however, the execution of the attack in Brandenburg differs from this. At the same time, there has been no indication so far "that a foreign power is behind it and has acted with intelligence service means".
Debate on protection of critical infrastructure
The attacks have sparked a broader discussion about future protection of critical infrastructure. Reul called for a public debate on the rights of operators of such facilities. "Are they allowed to operate video systems? Are they allowed in future to have their own drone defence, for example? These are questions that will have to be answered now," the CDU politician said in the ZDF "heute journal".
Brandenburg announced in response a new "360-degree security centre" that is to bring together findings from the constitutional protection service, police, and fire and disaster protection services. Furthermore, Interior Minister Redmann wants Brandenburg to be the first German state to introduce a so-called delegation law. This would allow operators of critical infrastructure to organise the protection of their facilities independently — a power that until now has been the exclusive domain of state and federal police as well as the Bundeswehr.