The police discovered a bomb and poison laboratory in two Cologne high-rise apartments. The first terrorist attack in Germany with a biological weapon was narrowly thwarted. Now a 31 year old Islamist has been convicted.
Dusseldorf (dpa) - A 31-year-old Islamist has been sentenced to ten years in prison for building a bomb with the biological weapon ricin in Cologne.
The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court found the Tunisian Sief Allah H. (31) guilty on Thursday of producing a biological weapon and preparing a serious crime that could endanger the state.
The proceedings against the German wife had previously been severed from H. The court accused her defenders of delaying the trial. The defendant announced a 140-page statement on Thursday. The couple are said to have built the bomb together, the arrest took place on June 13, 2018.
"They wanted to create a climate of fear and insecurity in the German population," said presiding judge Jan van Lessen. The amount of castor bean seeds procured by the couple would have been enough for a potential 13,500 deaths. In fact, spreading it with a cluster bomb filled with steel balls would have killed 200 people or less.
With the verdict, the court complied with the prosecution's criminal claim. The defense lawyers had requested a maximum sentence of eight years. In Tunisia, the 31-year-old had worked as a postman without a school-leaving certificate before he met the German Yasmin H. and came to Germany in 2016.
"For the first time, defendants were on trial in Germany who prepared an attack with a biological weapon," said the representative of the federal prosecutor. The 31-year-old had prepared an attack with a biological weapon in the densely populated Cologne-Chorweiler and near his own children.
The Tunisian had tried the poison on a hamster and undertaken test explosions in a green area. He had sworn allegiance to the then leader of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) and had been instructed by IS backers in the construction of the bomb. Previously, he had tried unsuccessfully to participate in jihad in Syria. The couple bought thousands of castor seeds and used them to obtain the highly toxic castor oil.
They also procured 250 steel balls and manufactured explosives. Various detonators were under construction when the police struck. Preparations for the attack were well advanced. The cluster bomb should have killed as many people as possible in a closed room.
The Tunisian had admitted bombing activities, but denied having planned an attack in Germany. He only wanted to acquire skills for his planned time at IS. He is now rejecting all terrorist groups, the 31-year-old said on Thursday, but also said: "Jihad is not barbaric, it is a duty in Islam." His defense lawyers said: "He was certainly guilty, we don't deny that."
The court, meanwhile, left no doubt that the 44-year-old wife and seven-time mother Yasmin H. was also guilty. It quoted testimony from neighbors, after which the accused said to her son: "When you grow up, you become an assassin and can blow yourself up." And: "If Allah says we should kill, then we kill."
The arrest was preceded by a tip from a foreign secret service. The service had been suspected of buying large quantities of castor oil online. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is not far from the couple's apartments, where the utensils were discovered. It would have been the first terrorist attack with a so-called ABC weapon in Germany.
BGH decision of December 18, 2019
GBA on March 7, 2019 for indictment
GBA on the investigation as of August 3, 2018
GBA arrested the wife on July 24, 2018
GBA on the investigation as of June 20, 2018
GBA on 14 June 2018 on the arrest warrant against the husband