BERLIN: An Iranian man has been arrested in western Germany suspected of preparing an “Islamist attack” using cyanide and ricin, police and prosecutors said Sunday.
Muenster police and the Duesseldorf prosecutors’ office said in a press release that officers searched a residence in the town of Castrop-Rauxel for “toxic substances” intended to carry out an attack.
The 32-year-old Iranian was “suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence threatening the security of the state by obtaining cyanide and ricin with a view to committing an Islamist attack,” said investigators.
The arrest was carried out shortly before midnight on Saturday evening, a spokeswoman for the police said. Another person, said to be the main suspect’s brother, was also taken into custody during the operation, she said.
The 32-year-old suspect will be presented in the coming days to an investigating judge ahead of possible pre-trial detention, police said.
Ricin is a highly toxic substance, which is classed as a “chemical weapon” in Germany. Similar to cyanide, ricin can be lethal.
According to local media reports, the raids were carried out by agents wearing protective suits, due to the chemical hazard.
German authorities were tipped off to the risk of an attack with a “chemical bomb” several days ago by a foreign intelligence service, the German daily Bild reported.
In 2018, a Tunisian man and his wife were arrested on suspicion of planning a biological bomb attack in Germany.
The couple, who sympathized with the Daesh group, were found in possession of 84 milligrams of ricin in their Cologne apartment. The man was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020, while his wife received an eight-year sentence.
Germany has been targeted in recent years by several Islamist attacks, including a 2016 truck attack on a Christmas market, that killed 12 people and left dozens injured.
A 13th victim died five years later having suffered serious injuries in the assault.
Iranian arrested in Germany suspected of chemical terror plot
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Iranian arrested in Germany suspected of chemical terror plot
- Germany arrests Iranian man on suspicion of planning an attack with deadly chemicals
Dreams on hold for Rohingya children in Bangladesh camps
- Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017
COX’S BAZAR: Books tucked under their arms, children file into a small classroom in Bangladesh’s vast refugee camps, home to more than a million Rohingya who have fled neighboring Myanmar.
“They still dream of becoming pilots, doctors or engineers,” said their teacher Mohammad Amin, standing in front of a crowded schoolroom in Cox’s Bazar.
“But we don’t know if they will ever reach their goals with the limited opportunities available.”
Around half a million children live in the camps housing the waves of Rohingya who have escaped Myanmar in recent years, many during a brutal military crackdown in 2017. The campaign, which saw Rohingya villages burned and civilians killed, is the subject of a genocide case at the UN top court in The Hague, where hearings opened on Monday.
In the aftermath of the 2017 exodus, international aid groups and UNICEF, the UN’s children’s agency, rushed to open schools.
By 2024, UNICEF and its partners were running more than 6,500 learning centers across the Cox’s Bazar camps, educating up to 300,000 children. But the system is severely overstretched. “The current system provides three hours of instruction per day for children,” said Faria Selim of UNICEF. “The daily contact hours are not enough.”
Khin Maung, a member of the United Council of Rohingya which represents refugees in the camps, said the education on offer leaves students ill-prepared to re-enter Myanmar’s school system should they return. “There is a severe shortage of teachers in the camps,” he said.
Hashim Ullah, 30, is the only teacher at a primary school run by an aid agency.
“I teach Burmese language, mathematics, science and life skills to 65 students in two shifts. I am not an expert in all subjects,” he said.
Such shortcomings are not lost on parents. For them, education represents their children’s only escape from the risks that stalk camp life — malnutrition, early marriage, child labor, trafficking, abduction or forced recruitment into one of the armed groups in Myanmar’s civil war.
As a result, some families supplement the aid-run schools with extra classes organized by members of their own community.
“At dawn and dusk, older children go to community-based high schools,” said father-of-seven Jamil Ahmad.
“They have good teachers,” and the only requirement is a modest tuition fee, which Jamil said he covered by selling part of his monthly food rations.
“Bangladesh is a small country with limited opportunities,” he said. “I’m glad that they have been hosting us.”
Fifteen-year-old Hamima Begum has followed the same path, attending both an aid-run school and a community high school.
“I want to go to college,” she said. “I am aiming to study human rights, justice, and peace — and someday I will help my community in their repatriation.”
But such schools are far too few to meet demand, especially for older children.
A 2024 assessment by a consortium of aid agencies and UN bodies concluded that school attendance falls from about 70 percent among children aged five to 14, to less than 20 percent among those aged 15 to 18.
Girls are particularly badly affected, according to the study.
