The 16-year-old Syrian, who was temporarily arrested for a feared attack on the Hagen synagogue, was still in police custody on Friday morning. However, his lawyer Ihsan Tanyola expected his client’s release on the same day. “No accusation has been substantiated that would justify that,” said the Hagen criminal lawyer at the German press agency in Düsseldorf about the arrest. He did not want to comment on the 16-year-old’s statements during his interrogation. The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Düsseldorf did not report any new state of affairs on Friday morning either.
Meanwhile, the investigation continues. With searches and arrests, the police followed up a “very serious and specific indication” that an attack on the Hagen synagogue was threatened on Yom Kippur, the highest Jewish holiday, as North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) reported on Thursday. The reference suggests an «Islamistically motivated threat situation».
The Syrian was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack. It was still unclear in the morning whether the evidence was so substantiated that the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office applied for an arrest warrant. Searches at the 16-year-old had not uncovered any bomb components. Electronic media such as cell phones and storage media have been seized that have yet to be evaluated. The 16-year-old’s father and two brothers, who were also initially taken into custody by the police, were released on Thursday evening.
The youth is said to have had contact with a well-known Islamist abroad and to have dealt with questions about bomb construction, according to security circles. The tip is said to have gone from a foreign secret service to the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). According to the investigators, the youngster admitted the contact, but denied any plans to attack the synagogue.
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