Germany Arrests Teenage Refugee With Islamic State Link Latest in series of arrests amid concern about potential terrorists among influx of migrants By Ruth Bender
http://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-arrests-teenage-refugee-with-islamic-state-link-1474463040
The teenager, who police didn’t identify in keeping with German privacy laws, had radicalized in only a few months after coming to Germany with his family in January last year, Cologne’s police chief Jürgen Mathies said in a press conference.
“This shows how fast a radicalization can unfold,” Mr. Mathies said. “The teenager changed his behavior drastically in only three months.”
Searches of the young man’s cellphone found evidence that he had been in contact with a person connected to Islamic State living abroad, prosecutors and police said.
In such chat conversations, the young man had received instructions on how to build a bomb as well as information on where explosives should be placed to have an impact, senior Cologne prosecutor Ulf Willuhn said. He also discussed whether Islam allowed the killing of nonbelievers, Mr. Willuhn said.
The teenager expressed his “unmistakable readiness” to commit such an attack, said Klaus-Stephan Becker from the Cologne police. Police, however, had no indications that he had begun to buy any of the materials needed to make explosives, Mr. Mathies said.
The arrest follows several others lately of recently arrived refugees suspected of planning terrorist acts as well as two terror attacks this summer committed by refugees.
Recent opinion polls showed rising fears among voters about further attacks as well as widespread discontent with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in hundreds of thousands of often undocumented migrants into the country last year without even the most cursory background check.
ENLARGE Security officials have been warning of the risk that terrorists might have entered Germany posing as refugees. Officials have also repeatedly warned that refugees could radicalize once in the country. Radical Islamists have been approaching refugees in and around asylum-seeker shelters and in mosques, including minors, intelligence officials have said.
The 16 year-old Syrian arrested in Cologne comes from a family of academics from Damascus, police said. He appears to have radicalized only over the summer months.
Comments are closed.
