Iranian citizen has been detained in Germany for possible terrorist attack
2023.01.08 10:53
Iranian citizen has been detained in Germany for possible terrorist attack
Budrigannews.com – Authorities in western Germany announced on Sunday that a 32-year-old Iranian national has been taken into custody by German police on suspicion of procuring the lethal poisons cyanide and ricin for an “Islamist-motivated” attack.
According to a joint press release from the Duesseldorf public prosecutor’s office and the police in the cities of Recklinghausen and Muenster, the suspect’s residence in the city of Castrop-Rauxel was searched as part of the investigation.
By allegedly procuring cyanide and ricin for an Islamist-motivated attack, the Iranian was alleged to have planned a “serious act of violence endangering the state,” according to the police. The penalty for this is anywhere from six months to ten years in prison.
“Islamist terrorist groups continue to direct their attacks directly at Germany. Following the announcement of the investigation, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser stated, “Islamist-motivated lone perpetrators are another considerable danger.”
She went on to say that “our security authorities therefore expect preparations for an attack at any time” and that German security forces had stopped 21 Islamist attacks in Germany since 2000.
According to Holger Heming of the Duesseldorf public prosecutor’s office, during the search in Castrop-Rauxel, police seized electronic storage devices but did not discover cyanide or ricin.
“TIP-OFF” Castrop-Rauxel is in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, whose Interior Minister Herbert Reul stated: We received a significant tip that prompted the police to intervene at night. The authorities are currently conducting an intense investigation.”
Without providing further details, Heming stated that the information came from a security agency of a “friendly state.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, according to Bild, a popular tabloid.
A second person was detained by police as a result of the searches, and given that the investigation is still ongoing, a decision on whether to issue an official arrest warrant will be made at a later time.
Heming verified that the individual was the suspect’s brother.
Ricin, which can be found naturally in castor beans, can kill in 36 to 72 hours if even a pinhead’s worth is exposed to it. There is no known antidote.
Inciting the “military breakup” of the militant Islamic State group, German domestic intelligence services claim that the number of members or supporters of Islamist causes has decreased by 1.5% to 28,290 individuals in 2021.
Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia with Islamist ties, drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in western Berlin on December 19, 2016, killing 11 and injuring dozens.
The searches on Sunday also come a month after German authorities detained 25 members and supporters of a far-right group that, according to the prosecutor’s office, were preparing a violent overthrow of the state.
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