Eight months after the arrest of an Iranian terror suspect in Castrop-Rauxel, the trial begins in Dortmund. Was an attack with a chemical weapon really imminent?
His hands tied, his face hidden behind a cardboard folder: When the 26-year-old Iranian was led into a meeting room at the Dortmund regional court on Wednesday, all eyes were on him.
At the beginning of January, the police arrested the man on suspicion of terrorism in his brother’s apartment in Castrop-Rauxel. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the defendant was preparing an attack with a chemical weapon and had already made concrete preparations for it.
That’s the accusation
The indictment accuses the Iranian of having obtained instructions for producing the toxic substances ricin and cyanide on the Internet. The release of the chemicals was supposed to kill a large number of unsuspecting and defenseless people. Both ricin and cyanide develop their toxic effects when inhaled.
The Attorney General’s Office is convinced that the 26-year-old “supported the ideas of the Islamic State” and therefore decided to carry out the attack. Corresponding chat histories, documents and links are said to have been saved on his smartphone.
According to the prosecution, the attack was originally supposed to have been carried out on New Year’s Eve 2022. Supposedly the only reason this didn’t work was that a component for the weapon – iron filings – wasn’t easy to obtain. Other possible bomb components, such as citric acid and coal, are said to have been seized in the apartment in Castrop-Rauxel.
The defendant does not want to comment in court
The Federal Criminal Police Office received the tip about the Iranian at the beginning of the year. Where exactly the tip came from cannot be officially confirmed in court. “It was an intelligence source,” one of the investigators said in his testimony. When the presiding judge asked whether this meant a foreign source, the witness replied: “My permission to testify is not so extensive that I could tell you that.”
The defendant does not want to comment on the allegations in court. Defense attorney Marco Ostmeyer announced that the 26-year-old would not provide any personal information. The brother, who was also originally arrested, is currently no longer being investigated. So far there has been no indication that the defendant could have shared the plans with his brother.
Previous conviction for attempted murder
If he is found guilty of preparing a serious act of violence that endangers the state, the 26-year-old could face a prison sentence and also be ordered to be placed in preventive detention. The Iranian has already been convicted of attempted murder. In 2018 he threw a heavy, long branch from a bridge onto Autobahn 45 near Dortmund. The branch hit a car, but the driver was uninjured.
In this ruling, the court ordered the man to be placed in an alcohol rehabilitation clinic. He was in this position at the time of his arrest. The clinic had allowed him to see his brother over the weekend.
The State Protection Chamber of the Dortmund Regional Court has scheduled hearings for the trial until the beginning of November. Additional police officers will be heard as witnesses in the following days.
Source: Stern
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