A TEENAGE suspect in a planned Yom Kippur attack on a synagogue in Germany had been plotting online with an Islamic State (IS) terrorist, according to intelligence sources.
The service on eve of the fast at the synagogue in Hagen was cancelled at the last minute after a tip-off it was a target. Armed police with sniffer dogs searched for explosives before giving the all-clear.
A 16-year-old boy originally from Syria was arrested after officers from a police special task force stormed the home he shared with his father and two brothers in the city in North Rhine Westphalia.
The three other family members were also arrested but released soon afterwards while the teenager remains in custody. He denies planning the attack.
The suspected plot echoes the terror attack in the city of Halle on Yom Kippur two years ago in which two people died.
Foreign intelligence sources say the boy talked online with the suspected IS terrorist about using explosives. The chats took place on encrypted messaging service Telegram. Electronic devices including mobile phones seized from the boy’s address are being examined.
There was “strong suspicion” that the boy was preparing a serious act of violence, according to the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office. The boy’s lawyer said he would apply for a review of his detention. Security sources say the boy’s father came to Germany in 2014 and was recognised as a refugee.
The Interior Minister for North Rhine Westphalia, Herbert Reul, said: “We received a very serious, concrete tip-off that there could be an attack on the synagogue during the Yom Kippur festival.
“The tip-off allowed conclusions to be drawn about an Islamist-motivated threat situation. Concrete means: clear time, place and perpetrator were named.”
German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said: “We are doing everything humanly possible to protect our population. Never again should Jews in Germany be allowed to live in fear.”
The government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein said he was “appalled by renewed plans for an attack on a synagogue on Yom Kippur”.
The events in Hagen took place with Germany about to go to the polls. Christian Democrat candidate for chancellor Armin Laschet has once again spoken out in favour of the deportation of “dangerous persons”. His Green Party rival Annalena Baerbock said there was “no justification, no acceptance, no excuse for antisemitism, whether from the right, the middle or Islamist-motivated”.
On Yom Kippur in 2019 in the eastern city of Halle, Stephen Balliet, 27, a neo-Nazi extremist, tried to blast open the doors of a synagogue to attack the congregation. He failed to get inside but then shot dead a random passer-by and another person in a nearby kebab shop.
Investigators condemned the attack as an act of anti-Semitic far-right terrorism. Balliet was sentendced to life on two counts of murder and seven of attempted murder.
