75-year-old arrested for plotting to kidnap German health minister

German police in Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday arrested a 75-year-old woman for plotting to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and bring down the country’s power grid.

According to reports by the German news outlet T-Online the woman is called Elisabeth R., a professor of theology from the University of Mainz who has worked as a protestant pastor.

She was active in the militant anti-vax movement that holds Lauterbach accountable for the country’s hawkish approach toward COVID-19 and sees him as their arch-enemy. Elisabeth R. promoted conspiracy theories about “secretive remodeling of brain structures” in this context and made anti-Semitic remarks about the “world jewry.”

Four other members of a group called “United Patriots,” of which Elisabeth R. is the leader, have also been arrested, according to the authorities. She was already stripped of her pension after attracting attention due to anti-constitutional statements years ago.

Elisabeth R. was involved in procuring weapons and explosives, and had proposed specific dates for the implementation of the plan, authorities said. The group’s goal was to incite a civil war in Germany and to restore the German empire of 1871, authorities added.

Elisabeth R. has signed an open letter stating that the Treaty of Versailles had not come about legally and that she still lives a parliamentary monarchy — without an emperor since October 28, 1918.