Status: 04/25/2023 10:00 p.m
Federal police special forces arrested a 28-year-old Syrian in Hamburg. The suspected Islamist was apparently planning a bomb attack.
The Hamburg public prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday, together with the state and federal criminal police, that the suspected Syrian and his brother, who lives in Kempten, Bavaria, are said to have planned an attack with a self-made explosive belt “out of a radical Islamist and jihadist attitude”. The 28-year-old is now in custody, his 24-year-old brother was temporarily arrested in Kempten.
No specific attack target known
There were apparently no indications of a specific target. A spokeswoman for the Hamburg public prosecutor’s office told the NDR: “A specific target was not yet known, or they had not yet considered it. But it was obviously about killing as many people as possible – in their sense unbelievers – with them. ” In the In an interview with the Hamburg Journal on NDR television, Hamburg’s Senator for the Interior, Andy Grote (SPD), added that it was still necessary to get into the “hot phase of preparation” for an attack. “But it was enough to say: this is where it’s going – and then you don’t have to wait any longer.”
Suspect bought raw materials for explosives
As reported by the Federal Criminal Police Office, the 28-year-old main suspect has been buying raw materials for the production of explosive material via online platforms for a few weeks. His 24-year-old brother is said to have encouraged him in planning the crime and thus provided assistance.
Around 250 police forces on duty
The 28-year-old has been living in Hamburg since 2015. He was arrested on Tuesday morning in an apartment building in the Bremer row in the St. Georg district of Hamburg. On Tuesday, police officers searched several properties in the Hanseatic city and in Kempten in the Allgäu, as well as the contacts of the two men. Extensive evidence, including chemical substances, was seized. Around 250 police officers were involved in the operation.
Arrest warrant from the District Court of Hamburg
According to the information, there is an arrest warrant from the Hamburg district court against the 28-year-old for terrorist financing. Among other things, it punishes anyone who collects and accepts assets in order to commit murder with them. This is unusual at first, because the accusation in comparable cases is usually preparation for a violent act that is dangerous to the state, which weighs much more heavily. However, this can be explained by the fact that the man apparently did not yet have all the components for an explosive belt and the preparations for the attack were therefore not yet complete.
Grote praises the cooperation of the security authorities
Hamburg’s interior senator Grote praised the cooperation between the security authorities in the Hanseatic city and those of the federal government. Everyone involved in the preliminary investigations had also done “highly professional and successful work”. “The case shows once again how vigilant and efficient our security authorities have to be to protect us effectively against extremist attacks,” said Grote.
Faeser: “The threat of Islamist terrorism”
For Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), the case shows “that the threat of Islamist terrorism is still acute.” That is why the fight against it will be continued “with all consistency”, explained Faeser in Berlin.
According to information from ARD terrorism expert Michael Götschenberg, the two brothers had not previously been on the radar of the security authorities as Islamist extremists. But now there was apparently a tip from a friendly foreign secret service that finally led to the arrest. According to the information, the 28-year-old wanted to carry out the attack on behalf of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”.
Further information
