Terrorism - Terror alert: Suspect was at Cologne Cathedral
The 30-year-old Tajik arrested in connection with the terror alert in Wesel on the Lower Rhine is suspected of having spied on Cologne Cathedral. "We know that he was there," according to security sources. The other target of the group to which the 30-year-old is linked is said to be St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.
Security circles suspect that the group could be a terrorist cell of the Islamic State, or more precisely its regional offshoot "Khorasan Province" (ISPK), which competes with the Islamist Taliban in Afghanistan. The "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" had previously reported accordingly.
Security circles did not initially confirm that the 30-year-old taken into custody was also a contact person for a suspected IS terror cell arrested in July, as reported by the Kölner Zeitung. For the security authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia, the 30-year-old was a blank slate. "He was not known to us", they said.
Attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year's Eve?
The police had searched an apartment in Wesel with special units on Christmas Eve and taken five men into custody. While four of them were released, the police took the 30-year-old Tajik into custody "to avert danger". The administrative court in Oberhausen confirmed that the 30-year-old's long-term detention until January 7 was permissible.
The security authorities had received information about a possible attack plan by an Islamist group relating to New Year's Eve. In Austria, four people were arrested during investigations into an Islamist network.
Several arrests in the past
Last July, the federal prosecutor's office in North Rhine-Westphalia had already uncovered a suspected Islamist terror cell and had seven suspects arrested. The men, most of whom also come from Tajikistan, are accused of planning attacks in Germany and supporting the terrorist organization Islamic State. They are also alleged to be members of the IS offshoot "Islamic State Province of Khorasan" (ISPK).
Tajik IS terrorists had already planned to murder a critic of Islam in Neuss near Düsseldorf in 2019. Because some of them had been under police surveillance for some time, special forces were able to prevent the assassination attempt.
In 2022, the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court sentenced five men from Tajikistan to prison terms of between just under four and nine and a half years. The Tajiks had come to Germany in 2015 and founded an IS terror cell in 2019. The Federal Court of Justice confirmed their conviction this year.
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- The terror alert in Wesel was linked to a person who reportedly surveillance-spied on the safety circuit of Cologne Cathedral.
- The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that the suspected group could be affiliated with the Islamic State's Khorasan Province.
- The 30-year-old Tajik, taken into custody in Wesel, was not previously known to North Rhine-Westphalia's security authorities.
- An apartment in Wesel was searched on Christmas Eve, leading to the arrest of five men and the prevention of potential danger.
- Austria's security authorities also investigated an Islamist network, with four people arrested during New Year's Eve celebrations.
- Last July, a suspected Islamist terror cell was uncovered in North Rhine-Westphalia, with seven men arrested for planning attacks in Germany and supporting ISIS.
- The men, primarily from Tajikistan, were deemed members of the IS offshoot "Islamic State Province of Khorasan" (ISPK).
- Preventive measures in 2019 averted an Islamist assassination attempt against a critic of Islam in Neuss, thanks to police surveillance.
- Five Tajik men were sentenced to prison terms for founding an IS terror cell in Düsseldorf and supporting the terrorist organization in 2019.
- Men from Tajikistan had entered Germany in 2015 and targeted Germany as a possible attack target due to its lax security and tolerance policy towards Men.
- The Taliban-controlled Afghanistan documented renewed criminality in its custody, raising concerns about the potential threat to German and European security.
Source: www.stern.de
