Iranians suspected of plotting bio-weapon attack arrested in Germany

A tip-off from US security officials prompted police in Germany to arrest two Iranian brothers suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated bio-weapon attack, prosecutors said on Sunday.

The brothers, aged 32 and 25, were taken into custody overnight in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, north-west of Dortmund, for allegedly planning an attack using cyanide and ricin with the intent of killing "an unspecified number of people," prosecutors said.

Ricin is highly toxic and is officially listed in Germany as a biological weapon.

The suspicion had initially been directed at the 32-year-old, according to a spokesman for the Düsseldorf prosecutor general's office. The younger brother, who was staying at the flat, was also detained as authorities quickly looked into his involvement in the alleged plot.

It was not revealed by investigators how far along their plans were or the intended targets. Moreover, police failed to uncover any toxins during their search of the residence in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday.

The two men were lightly clothed as they were led away in the early hours of Sunday, with just a jacket thrown over them against the winter cold, witnesses said. They did not offer any resistance.

Experts from the federal disease control body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), along with the Federal Criminal Police (BKA), some wearing protective hazmat suits, were involved in the operation.

A wide area around the site was cordoned off as a large contingent of police officers, fire-fighters and emergency services was deployed to the site.

Investigators seized data carriers during the raid. The items confiscated still have to be evaluated, a spokesperson for the Dusseldorf prosecutors handling the investigation said.

Evidence was placed in blue containers and taken to a decontamination site set up by the fire services.

As dpa learned from security circles, it was suspected that the older brother is a supporter of a Sunni Islamist terrorist group.

But he was not believed to have acted on behalf of Iranian state authorities, the spokesman for the Dusseldorf prosecutor's office said. He went on to say that there were indications of an Islamist worldview from which the planning of an attack could be inferred.

According to the mass-circulation tabloid Bild, the BKA had been watching the men for days, after receiving a warning from a "friendly intelligence agency," which officials later said was American.

A previous ricin case in Cologne four years ago, in which a Tunisian man and a German woman manufactured the poison and conducted a trial explosion, resulted in lengthy prison terms.

In that case too, a foreign intelligence agency provided a tip-off after large quantities of the toxin were purchased. The authorities estimated at the time that a bomb packed with steel balls and the ricin could have killed 200 people.

While not commenting on the details of the raid, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that lone attackers motivated by Islamist ideology remained a major threat for Germany.

"Our security forces are constantly on the lookout for an attack for this reason," she said.

The minister noted that German security authorities had thwarted 21 Islamist attacks since 2000. (dpa)

Pictured above: A man suspected of planning an Islamist-motivated bio-weapon attack in Germany is led away by officers in the German city of Castrop-Rauxel on 7 January 2023