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Abdurrahman C. in the courtroom: With its punishment, the court went beyond the demands of the federal prosecutor
Photo: Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
The Hamburg Higher Regional Court (OLG) has sentenced a 21-year-old supporter of the terrorist network Al-Qaeda to eight years in prison for planning an attack to mark the 20th anniversary of the events of September 11th.
According to a court spokesman, the judges considered it proven in their judgment that Abdurrahman C. had planned a terrorist attack with explosive devices and a firearm.
However, the Islamist was caught during a staged handover of arms in the summer of last year.
He had come across an undercover police officer who acted as a seller.
The court convicted the German-Moroccan of preparing a serious crime that endangered the state and of violating the War Weapons Control Act and weapons laws.
It went beyond the sentence of seven years imprisonment demanded by the federal prosecutor in their plea.
The defense had pleaded for a juvenile detention of between two and a half and three years for their client.
According to the "Hamburger Morgenpost", the presiding judge called the 21-year-old a "ticking time bomb".
He showed no remorse.
Attack on the Boston Marathon as a model
As a teenager, C. moved from Germany to Morocco with his family – he reportedly returned to Hamburg to study.
However, according to state protection, he did not successfully complete a preparatory college in Wismar.
According to investigators, lecturers had described him as an introverted loner.
He did not speak to women - and repeatedly visited the Taqwa Mosque in Hamburg's Harburg district, which is considered a meeting place for radical Islamists.
C's father was acquainted with Islamists associated with the 9/11 attackers.
He was also jointly responsible for the notorious Al-Quds Mosque on Hamburg's Steindamm, which has now been closed by the security authorities.
The concrete preparations for the attack prompted the security authorities to look again "at the 9/11 generation," as Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) said in December.
“Their fathers are still there – like the suspect’s father and others too.”
According to the findings of the federal prosecutor's office, the young man planned an act modeled on the attack on the marathon in the US city of Boston in 2013. There, a pair of Islamist brothers had detonated self-made black powder-based explosive devices.
Three people died.
According to the indictment, the now convicted C. had already procured chemicals and other materials for the construction of comparable explosive devices.
He also ordered a pistol with 50 rounds of ammunition and a hand grenade from the alleged seller on the dark web.
The man is a supporter of the radical Islamic ideology of the al-Qaeda network, which committed the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
He had numerous contacts in the radical Salafist scene.
C. has been in custody since his arrest.
During the subsequent search of apartments used by the accused, the material for building the bomb and propaganda material from Islamist groups were confiscated.
Apr/AFP
