Germany plans stricter antiterror measures following July attacks
Print Edition
GERMANY’S Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is preparing to unveil a slew of new antiterror measures after two attacks in July claimed by the Islamic State group.
The new measures, to be announced today, include speeding up the expulsion process for asylum seekers convicted of crimes, Bild daily reported, quoting anonymous security sources.
The minister is also planning to make being a “threat to public security” grounds for deporting migrants.
Doctors will also have their strict confidentiality obligations lifted in special cases that would allow them to inform authorities should their patient be a potential threat to the population, added Bild.
The tougher stance comes after the two attacks by migrants in the southern state of Bavaria — an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach.
In Wuerzburg, the 17-year-old attacker was shot dead by police after injuring five people. In Ansbach, 15 people were injured after a failed Syrian asylum seeker detonated an explosive device outside a music festival, killing himself.
De Maiziere is also expected to sign off next week on a declaration with regional interior ministers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and sister party Christian Social Union that calls for further security and antiterror measures, according to RND media group which publishes more than 30 regional dailies.
These additional measures include imposing a burqa ban, scrapping the possibility of dual nationalities for German citizens and boosting the presence of police in trains, as well as at railway stations and airports.
The declaration also calls for the recruitment of 15,000 police officers by 2020 and for measures to halt the financing of mosques by extremist organizations. It also urges the expulsion of foreign religious leaders who preach hate.
Meanwhile, German authorities yesterday arrested a man suspected of involvement in violence in Syria, a move triggered by the detention last week of a Syrian asylum-seeker who was suspected of planning an attack.
Police in the western city of Duisburg said the man was arrested in nearby Dinslaken, but gave no further details. North Rhine-Westphalia’s state interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, said the arrest resulted from investigations following the asylum-seeker’s detention, and that the man is suspected of involvement in crimes in Syria.
At this stage, “prosecutors are investigating several people in connection with possible acts of violence in Syria and possible vague attack plans here in Germany,” he said.
Authorities said on Tuesday that a 24-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker was arrested on Friday in Mutterstadt, in a neighboring German state, after an unidentified witness provided information on possible plans for an attack.
Initial reports suggested that he was suspected of being a member of the Islamic Sate group and that threats against a German league soccer match were involved. Jaeger told reporters that the arrest resulted from a “vague tip” from someone who thought he or she had “heard something.”
He said investigations so far haven’t produced evidence that the suspect was a high-ranking IS member, and show that there was no “concrete attack plan” against a soccer match.
Separately, German prosecutors carried out searches yesterday linked to three suspected supporters of IS.
The federal prosecutor’s office said that three people targeted are suspected of seeking members and supporters for IS since last year, news agency dpa reported. One of them also is believed to have given the group financial and logistical support. No arrests were made.
Jaeger said searches were conducted at five locations, including Duisburg, Dortmund and Duesseldorf in his state. He said they were part of a long-running investigation.
Germany has been on edge since IS claimed responsibility for two attacks in the country last month in which multiple people were wounded and the assailants both killed.
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