Suicide makes Berlin plot probe difficult
Print Edition
THE death of a 22-year-old Syrian man suspected of wanting to bomb a Berlin airport complicates the work of German authorities investigating the plot, a government spokesman said yesterday.
Jaber Albakr died on Wednesday after strangulating himself with his T-shirt while he was left unobserved in Leipzig prison, according to an autopsy report. Authorities had hoped he would reveal details about his alleged links to the Islamic State group.
“Something went wrong. Warning signals weren’t spotted early enough, bad judgments were made,” said spokesman Steffen Seibert. “Some things that might have been learned from him can’t be learned anymore.
“This makes the work of the investigators harder, because of course they want to find out about the people pulling the strings in the background, about connections and paths of radicalization,” he told reporters in Berlin.
German weekly Der Spiegel reported yesterday that Albakr had become radicalized in Germany, where he sought asylum last year. It cited his brother, Alaa Albakr, as saying that the 22-year-old had been interested in politics before fleeing Syria in 2014.
The brother claimed an unnamed Islamic preacher in Berlin had urged Albakr to return to Syria and join IS, which he did in September 2015, Der Spiegel reported.
Albakr reportedly told his family that he was fighting with IS and then broke off contact with them, returning to Germany in August or September, the brother was quoted as saying. He told the magazine he doubted Albakr would carry out a bomb attack.
The IS has claimed responsibility for two attacks in Germany in July, in which several people were injured but only the attackers died.
Questions have been raised about the authorities’ handling of the case, initially letting Albakr elude them as they prepared to raid the apartment where he was staying and allowing him to take his own life in prison. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere stressed yesterday that “those responsible know there is still a lot of work ahead of them” to uncover more information about the suspected bomb plot.
Albakr was assessed by a psychologist with whom he discussed what impact his behavior in prison would have on his trial, leading her to believe he was considering his long-term future, prison chief Rolf Jacob told reporters in Dresden on Thursday.
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