German police arrest Iranian man suspected of plotting chemical weapons attack

Ger­man police have detained a 32-year-old Iran­ian sus­pect­ed of obtain­ing the dead­ly poi­sons hydro­cyan­ic acid and ricin to car­ry out an “Islamist-moti­vat­ed” attack, west­ern Ger­man author­i­ties said on Sunday.

Accord­ing to a joint state­ment by the Düs­sel­dorf Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tor’s Office and the police in the towns of Reck­ling­hausen and Mün­ster, the sus­pec­t’s res­i­dence in the town of Kas­trop Lausel was searched as part of the investigation.

“The sus­pects alleged­ly pro­cured potas­si­um cyanide and ricin to car­ry out Mus­lim-moti­vat­ed attacks and are sus­pect­ed of prepar­ing seri­ous acts of vio­lence that endan­ger the nation,” the state­ment said.

Accord­ing to the police, the penal­ty for this case is six months to 10 years in prison.

Hol­ger Hem­ming, from the Düs­sel­dorf pub­lic pros­e­cu­tor’s office, told Reuters that police had seized the elec­tron­ic mem­o­ry device, but found nei­ther cyanide nor ricin.

Kas­trop Rosel is locat­ed in Ger­many’s most pop­u­lous state of North Rhine-West­phalia, where Inte­ri­or Min­is­ter Her­bert Royle said, “There was a seri­ous tip-off and the police inter­vened overnight. Now the author­i­ties are doing their best to inves­ti­gate.” It’s inside.”

Hem­ming said he had been tipped off by a secu­ri­ty agency in a “friend­ly coun­try” with­out elab­o­rat­ing. The tabloid Bild said the agency in ques­tion was the US Fed­er­al Bureau of Investigation.

Police said they had detained a sec­ond per­son as part of the search, adding that they would decide at a lat­er date whether to issue a for­mal arrest war­rant as the inves­ti­ga­tion continues.

Hem­ming con­firmed it was the sus­pec­t’s younger brother.

Ricin, a nat­ur­al sub­stance found in cas­tor oil, can kill a pin­head-sized amount with­in 36 to 72 hours. No known antidote.

The num­ber of mem­bers or sym­pa­thiz­ers of the Islamist cause in 2021 fell by 1.5% to 28,290, cit­ing the “mil­i­tary col­lapse” of the mil­i­tant group Islam­ic State, accord­ing to Ger­many’s nation­al intel­li­gence agency. .

On Decem­ber 19, 2016, Tunisian exile Anis Amur­ri with Islamist ties rammed his truck into a crowd­ed Christ­mas mar­ket in west Berlin, killing 11 peo­ple and injur­ing dozens.

It comes a month after Ger­man author­i­ties arrest­ed 25 mem­bers and sym­pa­thiz­ers of far-right groups plot­ting to over­throw the state.