This terrorist attack was supposed to have the dimension of terrorist attacks that had already shaken people in Europe. But the man is arrested beforehand. Now the suspected Islamist is on trial.
A 29-year-old man is on trial in Berlin for allegedly planning an Islamist terrorist attack. According to the indictment, the man had plotted specific attacks in 2019 to kill or injure as many people as possible. His arrest in November 2019 prevented the implementation of the attack, the prosecution said on Wednesday during the reading of the indictment at Berlin’s Superior Court. It accuses the Syrian of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and terrorist financing.
The 29-year-old, dressed all in dark clothes, calmly followed the reading of the indictment. In response to questions from the presiding judge Detlev Schmidt about his person, he only nodded mutely. His client would not comment on the accusations, said his defence lawyer. The accused is currently already in prison for other crimes. In May 2020, the Berlin Regional Court had sentenced him to three years and two months in prison for instructing the committing of a serious act of violence endangering the state.
The charges in the current trial partly coincide with those from the final conviction, which was already about instructions and information material for the construction of explosives and weapons. According to earlier statements by the authorities, the Syrian had arrived as a refugee in 2014 and had received a residence permit. According to the indictment, he had been involved with radical Islamist ideas since July 2017 and advocated the ideology of the terrorist organisation “Islamic State” (IS). From November 2018 at the latest, he had been planning to carry out an attack in Germany.
In spring 2019, according to the indictment, the accused then repeatedly informed himself intensively about the construction of bombs in a chat group with IS supporters. It was about plastic explosives, parcel and magnetic bombs, Kalashnikov assault rifles and submachine guns.
In August and September 2019, the 29-year-old allegedly bought chemicals such as acetone, hydrogen peroxide solution and sulphuric acid – substances needed to produce the highly explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP). TATP was used in terrorist attacks in Paris.
According to earlier information, the police became aware of the man in 2019 through a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service. The police then observed the suspect intensively over a longer period of time. Berlin’s then interior senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) later said that the last weeks before the arrest had been very stressful, because on the one hand the police had to gather enough evidence for an arrest and on the other hand they had to strike in time before an attack.
On November 5, 2019, a judge issued the arrest warrant. On November 19, 2019, the GSG 9 special unit of the Federal Police stormed the man’s new flat near the Schöneberg town hall in western Berlin and arrested him. According to the indictment, the chemicals found in the man’s flat at the time included acetone and hydrogen peroxide solution. In addition, he had kept a car battery containing sulphuric acid in a cellar storage room.
The trial will continue this Thursday (9.30 a.m.). The first witnesses are scheduled to be questioned, initially a police officer. Until May 25, a total of 23 further trial dates have been scheduled.