German authorities allowed a teenage terrorist suspect to remain at liberty for months before finally detaining him after learning of his plans to stage an attack shortly before or after Christmas, national media have reported.
In a report on Sunday which cited court documents and materials obtained by police investigators, Bild claimed that US special services had tipped off their German counterparts in early March about a young Islamic State supporter in the country.
The suspect, identified as 17-year-old Emin B., was allegedly a member of an Islamist chat group named ‘Adawla Al Islamia Assalafia’, where he is said to have shared plans to bomb consular premises in Germany. He also expressed a wish to behead infidels, the report claimed. The article suggested that by mid-March, the suspect had purchased nitrate, carbon and sulfide, apparently in order to assemble an improvised explosive device.
Acting on the information provided by US authorities, German police raided Emin B.’s home and impounded various pieces of evidence, but eventually let the youngster go, Bild and Der Spiegel reported.
Bild quoted an anonymous investigator as recounting that while the teenager “now knew he was in [the police’s] sights, his radicalization was getting ever stronger and his attack deliberations more concrete.”
According to the media outlet, the suspect – who supposedly had an accomplice – had his premises searched once again in August, but remained at large.
In late October, Emin B. allegedly contacted another individual, identified as ‘Silvio’, via WhatsApp to plan a terror attack for either December 20 or 24, or for January 20 or 24, the German media reported. The attack would purportedly have consisted of the pair plowing a truck into a large gathering of people and dying as “martyrs.” The 17-year-old is said to have taken driving lessons in preparation for the assault.
According to the two media outlets, the suspect was eventually placed in pre-trial detention in early November, with the judge pointing to the teenager’s “firm Islamist views [and] massive readiness to engage in violence,” as quoted by Bild.
On December 19, 2016, Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker from Tunisia, deliberately rammed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring dozens more. The terrorist managed to flee the scene and was later located and shot dead by Italian police.