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GERMANY-TUNISIA-ARREST-BIOTERRORISM
Tunisian held in Germany ‘sought to build biological weapon’
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, June 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A Tunisian man arrested in
Germany is suspected of trying to build a biological weapon using the deadly
poison ricin, prosecutors said Thursday, stressing however there was no
indication of any “concrete attack plans”.
The 29-year-old, identified as Sief Allah H., was detained after police
stormed his flat in Cologne late Tuesday, where they found unknown “toxic
substances” that turned out to be ricin.
“He is strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological
weapons,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The suspect has been charged with violating German law on the possession of
weapons of war, and “preparing a serious act of violence against the state”.
But prosecutors cautioned that it remained unclear whether he was planning
to use ricin to carry out an Islamist attack in Germany.
“There are no indications that the accused belongs to a terrorist
organisation, nor of any concrete attack plans at a certain time or place,”
they said.
According to German media, the police raid came after German intelligence
services were tipped off by foreign authorities who had grown suspicious of
the suspect’s online purchases.
Prosecutors said Sief Allah H. started buying the necessary equipment and
ingredients to make ricin in mid-May — including an online purchase of “a
thousand castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder”.
He succeeded in manufacturing the toxin earlier this month. The dangerous
substance has been secured by the authorities, they added.
Ricin — a poison that is produced by processing castor beans — has no
known antidote and is one of the world’s most lethal toxins.
It is 6,000 times more powerful than cyanide.
German news weekly Der Spiegel reported that Sief Allah H. was thought to
have been following instructions disseminated by the Islamic State group on
how to build a bomb containing ricin.
The case comes less than a month after French authorities said they had
foiled a terror attack possibly involving the use of ricin. Two brothers of
Egyptian origin were arrested.
Germany remains on high alert for jihadist attacks after several assaults
claimed by the Islamic State group in the country.
In the worst such attack, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri rammed a truck
into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12.
BSS/AFP/RY/1705 hrs