Acting on behalf of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the police have arrested the Iraqi national Gailan Al-M. on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. “In the spring of 2025, he planned, together with others, to carry out attacks in Germany against those he regarded as infidels,” according to a statement issued by the Federal Public Prosecutor on Thursday. “To this end, he had already acquired a firearm and carried out reconnaissance on a church in Bremen. According to his plan, this was to be the group’s first target.”
According to the Federal Public Prosecutor, Al-M. “shares the radical Islamist ideology of the foreign terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’ (IS)”. He had attempted to recruit further supporters for his plan. He succeeded in doing so with one person, who remains unidentified. “Attempts to recruit further individuals failed.”
The Iraqi man has already been brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice, “who has issued the arrest warrant and ordered that he be remanded in custody”.
The arrest took place in the Barnim district of Brandenburg by officers from the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police. The arrest warrant was issued by an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice. Specifically, he is strongly suspected of attempting to establish a terrorist organisation. In this context, he is also accused of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and of breaching the Weapons Act.