The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has brought charges against a suspected Islamist who allegedly planned a major terrorist attack in the Hamburg region. The trial is to take place at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court, as the Karlsruhe authority announced on Friday. The indictment still has to be admitted there.
The German-Moroccan Abdurrahman C. has been in custody since the end of August. However, the Hamburg security authorities only informed the public about the suspected terrorist in December. A short time later, the Federal Public Prosecutor took over the investigation against the then 20-year-old – because of the special importance of the case.
The preparations for the attack were said to be already well under way. The young man wanted to kill and injure as many people as possible, according to the indictment. The bomb-making materials found in his possession would have been sufficient to have a devastating effect.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the attack was to have taken place in the context of the 20th anniversary of the Islamist terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the USA. The man had intended to model his actions on those of the Chechen brothers who had carried out an attack on the Boston marathon in the United States in 2013.
The accused had been caught by undercover investigators while trying to buy a hand grenade and a semi-automatic firearm on the Darknet. During a faked handover by the police in the car park of a fast food restaurant on Kieler Street in Hamburg, the German-Moroccan was arrested by a special task force.
According to the security authorities, large quantities of chemicals for the production of black powder and several hundred metal screws and nuts were found in a flat he used in Hamburg. He is said to have been planning the attack since January 2021 at the latest. He is charged as an adolescent.