According to German media reports, the man now arrested is suspected of having planned an attack on a pro-Israel event.
Special police forces arrested a man in Duisburg on Tuesday. Police initially did not provide any information overnight about the arrest history or the man’s identity. According to reports from “Spiegel” and “Bild”, he would be considered a terrorism suspect. Thus, he is said to have planned an attack on a pro-Israel event.
An Essen police spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny the reports. “We cannot yet confirm whether this is the person we had in mind,” the spokeswoman said. The identification process is ongoing.
According to “Spiegel”, he is a convicted Islamist. The tip would have come from a foreign intelligence service. Authorities feared that the man might use a truck that he should have had easy access to, according to “Spiegel”. It is unclear whether the man already had a specific demonstration in mind.
According to consistent information from “Spiegel” and “Bild”, the detained person is a man who was sentenced to five years in prison by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court in 2017 for belonging to the terrorist group “Islamic State”. (APA)