Berlin – A 36-year-old Tunisian man suspected of supporting and recruiting on behalf of the Islamic State extremist group was arrested in central Germany early Wednesday amid dozens of counterterrorism raids, Frankfurt’s chief prosecutor said.
A total of 54 raids were conducted at apartments, commercial properties and two mosques in the central German state of Hesse, Alexander Badle said, adding that 16 suspects aged between 16 and 46 were being investigated.
The Tunisian man at the centre of the investigation is accused of working as a recruiter and smuggler on behalf of Islamic State militants and “creating a supporters’ network with the aim of preparing a terrorist attack,” Badle said.
He added that the plot had been in the early stages and a specific target had not yet been determined.
German police have conducted a number of anti-terrorism raids across the central state of Hesse on Wednesday. Photo: Boris Roessler/dpa
The Tunisian man, who lived in Germany between 2003 and 2013 but re-entered the country in 2015 as an asylum seeker, is also suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on the Bardo museum carried out in the Tunisian capital Tunis in 2015.
He was in German custody from September and had been due for deportation back to his homeland, but the authorities there failed to provide the relevant documents by a November deadline. Officials said he has been under 24-hour surveillance since his release.
The same happened in the case of Anis Amri, another Tunisian national whose extradition failed due to a lack of cooperation by Tunis. He ended up carrying out a truck attack in central Berlin on December 19 in which 12 people were killed.
The investigation leading up to the arrest took four months, said Max Weiss, a spokesman for Hesse’s state police department, adding that 150 officers worked “24 hours a day” in an effort to shut down the network.
Separately, three men were arrested during police raids in the German capital Berlin late Tuesday on terrorism-related charges.
-dpa
