Status: 16.09.2021 7:41 p.m.
Apparently an attack was to be carried out on the synagogue in Hagen. There have been serious indications of “an Islamistically motivated threat situation”, said NRW Interior Minister Reul. There were four arrests.
The police in North Rhine-Westphalia may have thwarted an attack on a synagogue in Hagen. “We have received very serious and specific information that there could be an attack on the synagogue during Yom Kippur,” said the North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul. This also included the possible time of the crime, the crime scene and the perpetrator.
The police tightened security measures around the synagogue on Wednesday evening and searched the building with the help of explosive dogs. But nothing was found. A 16-year-old from Hagen with Syrian roots was later provisionally arrested. He was found to have three other people who were also provisionally arrested by the police.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf announced that no bomb components had been found during the investigators’ searches. For this, cell phones and other storage media have been secured, which are now to be evaluated.
Police receive specific information about the attack on the synagogue in Hagen
Birgit Virnich, WDR, daily topics 10:15 p.m., September 16, 2021
No arrest warrant issued so far
It is still unclear whether an arrest warrant will be issued against the 16-year-old suspect. He is currently being questioned by the police. The news agency dpa reported, citing security circles, that the young person is said to have been in contact with a well-known Islamist abroad and to have dealt with the question of how to build a bomb. In the evening, the attorney general announced that the suspect had admitted contact with a bomb-building expert via the messenger service “Telegram”. However, he denies having planned an attack on the synagogue.
According to the public prosecutor, the three people also arrested are the youth’s father and his brothers. However, they have not been arrested as suspects and have since been released.
Politicians urge the fight against anti-Semitism
Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht spoke of a “very serious threat situation”. The incident awakens horrific memories of the attack on the synagogue in Halle two years ago, said the SPD politician after a statement from her ministry. “It is unbearable that Jews are once again exposed to such a terrible threat and were unable to celebrate the beginning of their highest festival, Yom Kippur, peacefully together.” The fight against anti-Semitism in its various forms is of the utmost importance. It is the duty of the state to do everything to protect Jews.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer also emphasized that anti-Semitism “has no place in our society”. “We are doing everything humanly possible to protect our population. Jews in our country must never again live in fear,” said Seehofer.
State Minister for Integration Annette Widmann-Mauz and Federal Minister of Finance and SPD candidate for Chancellor Olaf Scholz made similar statements. He described it as “our duty” to do everything to protect Jews “and to take immediate action in case of danger”.
Warning from foreign intelligence service
Police had cordoned off the access to the synagogue in the center of the city on Wednesday afternoon. According to information from security circles, this was preceded by a warning from a foreign partner service to the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) about a suspected Islamist in Germany.
The young person who lives with his father is said to have made statements about a possibly planned attack in his communication on the Internet. According to the “Spiegel”, the public prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf is investigating the young person on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state.
Laschet: Expel suspected terrorists from the country
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Armin Laschet was relieved that worse things could have been prevented in good time. “Thank God we found out about it in advance and we have increased the security requirements, and we are now in the process of uncovering how serious this attack was,” said Laschet.
The CDU candidate for chancellor advocated that people who are planning a terrorist attack should be expelled from the country: “Those who integrate here should integrate, should learn German and should also have a job and be allowed to stay. who plans terrorist acts must be evacuated from the country. “
Laschet warned to be vigilant against any kind of extremism and recalled the attack in Halle about two years ago. “In Halle it was the right-wing extremists who carried out an attack. Elsewhere it is Islamists. In the third place we have left-wing extremists. We must fight all extremes without hesitation, without being blind in one eye,” emphasized Laschet.
The Federal Government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, also recalled the attack in Halle and said:
I would have wished that the terrible attack in Halle two years ago, also on the highest Jewish holiday, would have marked a turning point – but unfortunately that is obviously not the case.
In the attack in Halle on October 9, 2019, also on Yom Kippur, an assassin tried to break into the synagogue in Halle, heavily armed, and massacre the 51 people who had gathered there. When the door held out, he shot two people nearby and injured two others while trying to escape.