The Neuruppin district court has issued an arrest warrant for a 16-year-old teenager from Brandenburg on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The authority announced this on Thursday. There is strong suspicion against him of having planned and prepared an Islamist-motivated attack on the Internet together with a 15-year-old in North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to SZ information, the 15-year-old is a German-Afghan from Burscheid near Leverkusen. The 16-year-old is said to come from Wittstock in northwest Brandenburg and has Russian citizenship. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) said on Wednesday afternoon that the two had “agreed on a very specific plan to attack a Christmas market.” An arrest warrant was issued against the 15-year-old on Wednesday.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution tracked down the two young people. The authority had previously received information from abroad about a suspicious user of the messaging service Telegram in a chat of a group supporting the terrorist group “Islamic State”. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has long been warning that the risk of Islamist attacks has recently increased. President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Thomas Haldenwang spoke of a “new quality”.