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09 August 2016 A 25-year-old Syrian refugee was arrested in Rhineland-Palatinate on suspicion of being an ISIS terrorist.
The young man born in Damascus arrived in Germany earlier this year in North Rhine-Westphalia.
As a refugee and his fingerprints had been taken.
On the basis of indications that he might belong to the Islamic State, the Duisburg Prosecutor's Office had opened an investigation and the young man was placed under observation.
Although revealed only today, the arrest was already carried out on Friday while the suspected ISIS militant was in Mutterstadt, in the neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate region.
On his cell phone and computer, "numerous photos showing fighting in Syria were found. A central question for investigators is whether they were downloaded from some site or filmed directly", writes Suedwestrundfunk (SWR) radio on its site.
According to what is learned from sources of the Ministry of the Interior, one of his objectives would have been to organize an attack for the start of the Bundesliga (the German Serie A) on 26 August.
The man is allegedly suspected of acting on behalf of a high-ranking member of the terrorist organization based in Syria and Iraq.
Members of the federal investigative police and the police force of the city of Duisburg also participated in the raid, carried out by the police leather heads.
"There has been cooperative work between the police forces of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia," said Roger Lewentz, interior minister for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.