Suspicion of terrorism in Thuringia
Police arrest suspected Islamists for plotting attacks in Sweden
Blue lights shine on the roof of a police car
© Marcus Brandt / DPA
Two men are said to have planned an attack with firearms near the Swedish parliament. Now they have been arrested by the police in Thuringia.
On Tuesday, the federal prosecutor’s office had two suspected Islamists arrested near Gera in Thuringia on suspicion of terrorism. The two Afghans are accused of planning an attack with firearms near the Swedish parliament, a spokeswoman said in Karlsruhe. They are said to have received instructions from an offshoot of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS) in the summer of 2023.
The authorities said the attack was intended to be a response to the Koran burnings taking place in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries at the time. The target should therefore be police officers and other people. To this end, they had made close agreements with officials of the “Islamic State Khorasan Province” (ISPK), the IS branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are said to have researched local conditions on the Internet and tried several times to obtain weapons. That was unsuccessful.
Membership and support of a terrorist organization
One of the accused is said to have joined the ISPK as a member in August 2023, and the investigators accuse the other of supporting the organization. Both had previously collected donations for IS in Germany amounting to around 2,000 euros. According to investigators, they sent the money to the terrorist organization through intermediaries.
Both are scheduled to be brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice on Tuesday and Wednesday. The arrest warrants, which were issued almost two weeks ago, are to be opened there. A decision will also be made about possible pre-trial detention.
Specifically, the investigators accuse the two of not only being members of or supporting a terrorist organization abroad, but also conspiring to commit a crime, in this case murder, as well as violating the Foreign Trade Act.