Germany arrests suspected ISIS supporters accused of planning terror attack on Swedish parliament

CNN/March 22, 2024

By Chris Stern, Frederik Pleitgen and Catherine Nicholls

Two individuals accused of planning a firearms attack on Sweden’s parliament were arrested in Germany on Tuesday, according to a statement by the Office of the German Federal Prosecutor.

The pair, who authorities said are Afghan citizens, were arrested near the city of Gera in Thuringia, central Germany, on suspicion of terrorism, the statement said.

Germany’s Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, said in a statement on Tuesday that one of those arrested is a suspected member of terror group ISIS, and one is a suspected supporter.

The Afghanistan Embassy in Berlin told CNN it had not received any communication on the matter from German federal authorities, saying it was ready to cooperate if needed.

“The Embassy… condemns, in the strongest terms, all ideological and acts of violence and terrorism in all its forms,” it added in a statement.

According to the Office of the German Federal Prosecutor, the suspects received instructions on conducting the alleged planned attack from a branch of ISIS in the summer of 2023.

The attack was intended to be retaliation for the Quran burnings that took place in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries at the time, the prosecutor said. Police officers were among those set to be targeted, it added.

The two detainees made “concrete preparations” for the terror attack and unsuccessfully tried to procure weapons, the statement said. They also researched local conditions in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, where the attack was supposed to take place, it continued.

Both individuals had also previously collected donations amounting to around 2,000 Euros (around $2,170) to send to ISIS, investigators said.

The German federal prosecutor said that the suspects will be brought before the country’s Federal Court of Justice on Tuesday or Wednesday. The court will decide on arrest warrants and the execution of pre-trial detention regarding the suspects, it added.

Faeser said that the arrests show that Germany remains “very vigilant” and acts “consistently to prevent Islamist attacks.”

“The threat of Islamist terrorism remains acute,” Faeser said. “Islamist terrorism continues to be a particular focus of the security authorities.”

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