extremism
17-year-old is said to have planned an Islamist attack
The police arrested the 17-year-old at Hanover Central Station. Photo: Philipp Schulze/dpa/Symbolbild
© dpa-infocom GmbH
After a police operation in Hanover at the weekend, a youth is in custody. He is said to have prepared an Islamist-motivated attack and claimed that he had built an explosive device.
The district court in Kerpen has issued an arrest warrant for a 17-year-old terrorist suspect. A court spokesman confirmed this.
The youth, who comes from Kerpen near Cologne, is accused of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state. After the arrest warrant was issued, he was taken to the juvenile detention center in Wuppertal. The news magazine “Der Spiegel” had previously reported.
According to the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office, the accused is said to have prepared an Islamist-motivated attack. To this end, others are said to have given him skills for committing such an attack.
Suspicion intensified due to self-incriminating statements
The 17-year-old was arrested last Saturday at Hanover Central Station. The police had used explosive dogs to search a train he had been on. There had been phone calls to his parents “where he had announced some things,” said the court spokesman. There was a suspicion that he wanted to commit an assassination. However, explosives were not found.
A defuser from the federal police also examined the 17-year-old’s bag, but it did not contain any dangerous objects. The young person is said to have stayed mostly in the Hanover area since November 2021.
The public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf said the suspicion had increased due to self-incriminating statements by the 17-year-old. During an interrogation he said he had procured objects for the construction of an explosive device and had made one. The investigations for further clarification continued. Investigators have not yet found a bomb.
In a first hearing, the 17-year-old denied having prepared an Islamist attack, according to the authorities. He was arrested after a tip from his personal environment.