Already in April this year, the brothers, aged 29 and 24, were arrested in the German town of Kempten. Now the older brother is charged with having planned a radical Islamist-motivated bombing attack on a church in Sweden since spring 2023.
The goal must have been to kill and injure a number of people, according to Liddy Oechtering, spokesperson at the Hamburg prosecutor’s office.
He is also charged with trying to become a member of a terrorist organization abroad and financing terrorism. The 24-year-old is charged with aiding and abetting the financing of terrorism and attempting to join a terrorist organization abroad.
Wanted revenge for the Koran burnings
– The older brother was the driving force, we see him as the main perpetrator, but the younger brother is said to have supported him and been helpful, says Liddy Oechtering, spokesperson at the prosecutor’s office in Hamburg.
The plan was to carry out the attack at a time when many people would be in the church. With the attack, they wanted revenge for the Koran burnings in Sweden.
Waiting for chemical delivery
The brothers are said to have been in the preparation phase and did not clarify which church in Sweden was the target.
– The plan was still quite vague. Fortunately, it came to the attention of the public prosecutor’s office before it could be developed, says Liddy Oechtering.
However, the older brother is said to have already prepared to manufacture an explosive belt. When he was arrested, the police found two kilos of urea fertilizer and citric acid. He was also awaiting a delivery of other chemicals he had ordered online. Including bleaching agents with a high carbamide peroxide content.
– Had all this arrived at him, he would actually have been able to manufacture an explosive charge, says Liddy Oechtering and continues:
– We assume that he had planned for some kind of explosive belt, that is the most common way to ignite the explosive charge. With your own life as a stake.
Links to IS
The brothers have also had contact with an unidentified third person who calls himself “Emir”, who belongs to the IS-linked Al-Saqri Institute for War Science, according to the prosecutor’s office in Hamburg. The 29-year-old is said to have told about his plan for “Emir” and that it is a response to the Koran burnings in Sweden.
– “Emir” has not been able to be identified. According to our knowledge, he is close to the Islamic State IS and worked at a corresponding cultural institute. So should the contact between “Emir” and our defendants, says Liddy Oechtering.