The anti-terrorist operation in Castrop-Rauxel made waves. Three weeks later, one of the two suspects is free again. The terror investigators think that’s a mistake.
Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – In the anti-terror investigations by Castrop-Rauxel, the public prosecutor’s office is taking action against the release of the 32-year-old suspect from custody. The authority had lodged a complaint against the release, said senior public prosecutor Holger Heming on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. The Iranians are still considered to be urgent suspects of having prepared an Islamist-motivated attack together with his 25-year-old brother.
Now the District Court of Dortmund has to deal with the case again. A court spokesman said that in such a detention case there would be a speedy decision after the formal receipt of the complaint. If the appeal at the district court is not upheld, the case automatically goes to the next higher instance, the regional court.
The district court lifted the arrest warrant on Monday and released the 32-year-old a good three weeks after the spectacular arrest in Castrop-Rauxel in the northern Ruhr area. The competent magistrate no longer saw any urgent suspicion. “We have a different opinion,” emphasized senior public prosecutor Heming. Regardless of whether the man is in custody or not, the investigations against him continued.
The 32-year-old remains free until a new decision is made. The authorities do not reveal whether the man is under special surveillance. Heming only said so much: “The authorities to avert danger have been informed about the fact of the release from prison.”
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the 25-year-old suspect is also due for a detention check this week.
A foreign secret service put the German investigators on the trail of the men. The investigators accuse the two 32- and 25-year-old Iranians of wanting to murder many people. They originally planned an attack on New Year’s Eve on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. They are said to have tried to get hold of the highly toxic agents cyanide and ricin.
On the night of January 8, both were arrested in Castrop-Rauxel in the northern Ruhr area. Cyanide and ricin were not found in them, but other “small amounts of chemical and biological substances” according to earlier information from NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU). “I would never have guessed that the substances that are being discussed could be so dangerous if you mix them properly,” Reul said in the state parliament’s interior committee.
