Two kitchen knives, fireworks, batteries and 17,460 matches were among the equipment the man, who lives in Malmö, planned to use to attack people at random in the Danish capital, according to the charges to be brought in the trial, which began on Tuesday.

The man denies the charges, but his defence lawyer declined to go into further detail prior to the commencement of the trial.

“He has asked me not to make any statement,” lawyer Karin D. Svenningsen said.

The 31-year-old Syrian has been held in custody for over a year.

The case is linked to the detention of a younger Syrian man after he was stopped at the port at Rødby, a ferry connection from Germany, due to an issue with his travel papers.

A search of the man’s luggage revealed he was carrying a large number of matchsticks and other components that can be used to make one or more bombs, a court in the southern German town of Ravensburg found.

“My assignment was to transport a bag to Copenhagen and deliver it to a contact person at the rail station,” the suspect in that case is reported to have said. He was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Copenhagen City Court will now attempt to ascertain whether the Malmö man is the same individual as the person the younger individual was scheduled to contact, and whether he genuinely intended to kill innocent people with bombs and knives.

During investigations, police were unable to locate a third person believed to be connected to the case. That search is ongoing.

The convicted individual in Germany and a number of people from Sweden will be questioned during the trial, which is scheduled to be concluded in March.

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