Essen, Germany, July 10, (dpa/GNA) – German police arrested a man on Wednesday, in connection with a suspected Islamist terrorist plot after raids on multiple properties in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Raids were carried out simultaneously at six properties in the cities of Essen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Soest, prosecutors and Essen police said in a joint statement.
A 27-year-old man with Bosnian-Herzegovinian citizenship was detained, on suspicion of terrorism and was remanded in custody later on Wednesday, public prosecutor Alexandra Wiese told dpa.
The suspect is accused of joint commercial fraud, to finance a planned attack motivated by Islamist terrorism.
The man is said to have arrived in Germany as a child, and was previously unknown to authorities until he became radicalized over the past two years.
Police are also investigating others believed to have been involved in the fraud. “However, whether they knew what the money was to be used for is the subject of the investigation,” a spokeswoman for the Dusseldorf public prosecutor’s office said.
The Wednesday searches were part of what officials described as a “comprehensive investigation into suspected organized commercial fraud.”
Evidence from the investigation suggests that the assets obtained through fraudulent activities, were intended to finance an Islamist terrorist attack, the public prosecutor and police said.
The raids were aiming to prevent any further planning or execution of the suspected attack, and to clarify the situation, authorities said.
Searches were also carried out at the premises of third parties considered witnesses, with the aim of seizing evidence.
Herbert Reul, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, praised police for their effort to prevent potential terrorist activities.
“There are people out there who want to disregard and destroy our values and our way of life,” Reul said.
“Anyone who pursues terror plans here must expect the SEK [special forces] to be at their door in the morning,” he said.
North Rhine-Westphalia, with more than 18 million residents, is Germany’s most populous state.
GNA