teenagers
Police union concerned about young terror suspects
Four young people from North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg are said to have planned an Islamist terrorist attack. The Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating. photo
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
Four young people from North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg are said to have planned an Islamist terrorist attack. The German Police Union is also very concerned.
The suspects do not correspond to the prevailing image of suspected extremists with an Islamist background, i.e. around 30 years old, male and possibly battle-hardened, said DPolG federal chairman Rainer Wendt to the German Press Agency on Saturday. Rather, they are “young people who live normally among us and belong to us.”
According to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), those arrested are a 15-year-old from Düsseldorf, a 15-year-old from Lippstadt, a 16-year-old from Iserlohn and a 16-year-old from Ostfildern (Baden-Württemberg). According to the investigators, they are said to have agreed to commit a crime – murder and manslaughter – “in conjunction with the preparation of a serious act of violence that would endanger the state.” According to the minister, it can be assumed that the Internet played a role in their radicalization. Investigators said on Friday that Islamist influencers were now particularly targeting young people. Because of their age, they were probably completely unaware of the cruel activities of IS in Syria and Iraq until 2015.
Evidence for parents and teachers
Wendt emphasized that everyone in society should be aware of the threat that Islamists are deliberately trying to recruit young people to their terrorist goals online. And everyone should be attentive – parents, teachers, friends, acquaintances. “Everything is somehow suggested.” Strange new friends, an unfamiliar, exaggerated vocabulary, closedness and withdrawal could be indications, or skipping school could possibly be an indication of a change in personality. The DPolG chairman said that the police were generally well equipped in terms of competence, even in such cases. “But the police and the judiciary cannot do it alone.”
According to the security circles, the young suspects had no specific attack plan with a time and place, but Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Cologne were discussed as attack cities and attacks with knives and Molotov cocktails on people in churches or on police officers in police stations were being considered. The reference to attacks on police stations “does not shock us,” Wendt made clear.
“Colleagues have been living with this danger for years.” There have also been structural changes such as locks in entrance areas, police officers are well protected and also protect themselves well. However, one can never be completely protected against surprise attacks outside during daily work. The police will not give up the “required level of proximity to the citizens”.
It was only in November that two 15 and 16-year-old teenagers were arrested on suspicion of terrorism. They were said to have sympathized with the so-called Islamic State and planned an attack on a Christmas market. They were taken into custody in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.