A 16-year-old Syrian and three of his relatives were arrested Thursday, September 16, in Germany, the day after a threat of an "Islamist" attack on a synagogue, in the middle of Yom Kippur.
"There was a danger of an attack on the synagogue of Hagen", in the west of the country, confirmed the Minister of the Interior of the region of North Rhine-Westphalia.
Herbert Reul praised the action of the police forces who "probably prevented" him.
For him, there is little doubt that this threat was "motivated by Islamism".
"It seems that before the start of Yom Kippur, an Islamist-motivated attack could have been avoided", confirmed shortly after Armin Laschet, conservative candidate to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in the September 26 elections and boss of the region .
A 16-year-old minor, suspected of planning the attack
On Wednesday evening, the celebration of Yom Kippur in this synagogue in Hagen, a city of 180,000 inhabitants located in the former industrial basin of the Ruhr, had been abruptly canceled.
The police had deployed several heavily armed men and dogs around the religious building to find possible explosives.
However, no bomb was found in or near the scene, local police said Thursday morning.
Access to the streets around the synagogue had also been blocked.
The investigation, opened on suspicion of "preparing an act of serious violence endangering the State", in particular "led to the identification and arrest of a 16-year-old young man from Hagen, "local police said late in the morning on Thursday.
The 16-year-old is a Syrian who lived in Hagen, the minister confirmed.
He was arrested Thursday morning at the city train station, three of his relatives also being arrested at their home, according to local media.
Alerted by a foreign intelligence service
The young Syrian, who would have announced an imminent attack on a discussion forum monitored by this service, was spotted by a foreign intelligence service, which immediately alerted the German authorities, according to several media.
The attack was likely to be carried out Wednesday evening using homemade explosives, according to media.
This case comes almost two years after an attack on the synagogue in Halle, eastern Germany, also on Yom Kippur.
The author, a right-wing extremist, had tried to enter the synagogue, but failed to do so, to shoot the worshipers there.
However, he had killed two people in the street and in a snack bar before being arrested.
He has since been sentenced to life in prison for the attack.
Anti-Semitic crimes and offenses, emanating from the jihadist movement as well as from the far right, have continued to increase in Germany in recent years, with 2,032 offenses recorded in 2019, or 13% more than the previous year.
With AFP
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