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| - German prosecutors said Tuesday they have charged a man and a woman in connection with a series of threatening letters sent to politicians and local authorities by left-wing activists. The letters sent between December 2019 and October 2020 threatened violence if the recipients did not meet certain demands and contained items such as blank cartridges, matches, firelighters and knives, prosecutors in Stuttgart said. The pair, both aged 39, are also accused of failed attempts to set fire to an employment agency building and the house of a prominent German businessman. They have been charged with "attempted coercion and attempted arson", among other things. The letters received by politicians, local authorities, ministries and transport associations were signed by a "collective of Revolutionary Action Cells". The recipients included Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann, according to media reports. The pair are said to have planted incendiary devices at an employment agency in Nuremberg and the house of a businessman in North Rhine-Westphalia in August 2020, though they were unable to ignite the devices. German media reported that the businessman was Clemens Toennies, the head of Germany's biggest meat-processing company that has drawn controversy over its working practices during the coronavirus pandemic. When the pair were arrested in October, Der Spiegel weekly reported that both suspects were active in left-wing politics. A group called Revolutionary Action Cells committed several attacks on government buildings in Berlin around ten years ago, but it is not clear whether there is any link. fec/hmn/wdb
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