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CRIME

Islamist motive possible in German train knife attack: prosecutors

A Syrian man accused of injuring four people in a knife attack on a German train earlier this month may have had Islamist motives, prosecutors said in a statement.

An ICE train cordoned off by police.
An ICE train cordoned off by police. The attack took place between Regensburg and Nuremberg on November 6th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/vifogra |

“An Islamist background to the crime cannot be ruled out,” the prosecutors in Munich said in a statement published late Tuesday of the incident, after
investigators initially said there were no indications of such a motive.

“Indications pointing in this direction include the contents of the defendant’s Facebook account and propaganda videos of the terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS) found on him,” they said.

The case has been handed to the Bavarian police’s anti-terrorism unit which is continuing to evaluate documents and data carriers seized from the suspect, they said.

The 27-year-old suspect is believed to have acted alone in the assault on a high-speed train between the Bavarian cities of Regensburg and Nuremberg on November 6th.

READ ALSO: Several wounded on German train attack

He was arrested and taken into psychiatric care, with an initial assessment suggesting he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was most likely not criminally responsible for his actions.

Prosecutors accuse him of attempted murder, attempted manslaughter and grievous bodily harm.

Germany remains on high alert for terror attacks from Islamists and far-right extremists after a series of deadly incidents in recent years.

Last May, a Syrian jihadist was given a life sentence for stabbing a German man to death and severely wounding his partner in a homophobic attack in the eastern city of Dresden.

CRIME

Germany charges sixth suspect in health minister kidnap plot

German prosecutors said Wednesday they had charged a sixth suspect in a far-right plot to kidnap the health minister and overthrow the government in protest against Covid-19 restrictions.

Germany charges sixth suspect in health minister kidnap plot

The 61-year-old man was charged with “the preparation of a treasonous enterprise and membership in a terrorist organisation”, Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement.

The group intended to strike several parts of the energy grid to provoke a “nationwide power outage lasting several weeks” that would provide cover for a coup attempt, investigators said.

The alleged plotters planned to abduct Health Minister Karl Lauterbach “at gunpoint”, potentially killing his bodyguards in the process.

During the coronavirus pandemic, some of the fiercest opponents of the government’s anti-virus measures were far-right activists who reject Germany’s democratic institutions.

Lauterbach had become a hate figure for the group because of the pandemic restrictions including the requirement to wear facemasks in public places that he had ordered.

“The kidnapping of a high-ranking federal government official was intended to demonstrate the group’s determination and capabilities,” prosecutors said.

The latest suspect was said to have “participated in meetings of the group and worked on the concretisation of the plans”.

The man allegedly declared himself ready to participate in the kidnapping of Lauterbach, prosecutors said.

He also offered his garage in the region south of Frankfurt to a group ringleaders as a weapons store, investigators said.

The senior plotter was arrested in April 2022 and the arms – two AK-47 assault rifles and four Glock pistols – were never deposited.

READ ALSO:

The new suspect also offered to “sail” to Russia after the planned coup “as a member of a delegation to negotiate an ‘alliance’ with Russian state authorities and to procure military equipment”, prosecutors said.

Five other members of the group went on trial in Koblenz in May 2023.

The group intended to replace the government with an authoritarian system “modelled on the constitution of the German Empire of 1871”, according to investigators.

The belief that the German government is illegitimate is current among members of the far-right Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which has attracted a growing number of followers.

The organisers of another alleged far-right plot to topple the government were arrested in raids at the end of 2022.

The trial of the suspected ringleader, the aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, will open in Frankfurt in May.

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