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Germany Charges 2 Afghans Accused of Planning Attack Near Swedish Parliament

Police vehicles leave the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany (AP)
Police vehicles leave the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany (AP)
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Germany Charges 2 Afghans Accused of Planning Attack Near Swedish Parliament

Police vehicles leave the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany (AP)
Police vehicles leave the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, Germany (AP)

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, southwest Germany, has charged two Afghans with conspiring to carry out a shooting near the Swedish Parliament.

One of the accused is said to be a member of ISIS, while the other is described as a supporter of the group.

Last March, Germany detained the two Afghan citizens accused of planning an attack on the Swedish parliament in response to the burning of copies of the Quran in Stockholm last summer.

At the time, the federal prosecutor’s office said two Afghan nationals identified as Ibrahim MG and Ramin N. were detained in the eastern German city of Gera on suspicion of plotting the attack.

The suspects have been in pre-trial detention since their arrest.

According to German authorities, ISIS-Khorasan instructed the suspects in the summer of 2023 to attack Europe “in response to the burning of the Quran in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries.”

The two men planned to use firearms to kill police and other individuals around the Swedish Parliament.

German officials revealed that the suspects, arrested last March in Gera, Thuringia, had taken “specific steps” in close coordination with ISIS-Khorasan, a branch primarily based in Afghanistan and Pakistan, to carry out their plot.

They also conducted online research on the crime scene and attempted unsuccessfully to obtain weapons.

Prosecutors accuse both men of belonging to or supporting a terrorist organization, as well as of arranging to commit a crime and violating the Foreign Trade and Payments Act.

Federal prosecutors said they filed the indictment on Aug. 12 to the state court in Jena, which will decide whether and when the case goes to trial.

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Security is Stepped Up at a NATO Air Base in Germany Due to a 'Potential Threat'

US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
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Security is Stepped Up at a NATO Air Base in Germany Due to a 'Potential Threat'

US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)

Security at a NATO air base in western Germany has been raised because of intelligence information pointing to a “potential threat,” and all staff not essential to missions have been sent home as a precaution, NATO said.
The Geilenkirchen air base, near the border with the Netherlands, is where the alliance's Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft are based.
A post on the NATO AWACS fleet's account on social media network X late Thursday night announcing that “we raised the security level" did not elaborate on the nature of the potential threat. It said that “operations continue as planned.”
German news agency dpa said a reporter saw police cars on the grounds of the air base. Police confirmed a deployment Thursday night but gave no details, and offered no information on Friday morning, The Associated Press said.
Last week, a major German air force based near Cologne was locked down for several hours amid fears that its water supply might have been tampered with. An investigation found no evidence of such sabotage. There were also reports of suspicious observations at Geilenkirchen and a person was briefly detained for questioning near the base, dpa reported at the time, but there turned out to be nothing untoward.
The incidents come at a time of jitters about the possible vulnerability of infrastructure to attempted Russian sabotage.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Flensburg, in Germany's far north, said they were investigating suspicions of espionage for the purpose of sabotage, without elaborating on who might be behind it. German media reported that drones had been spotted over a chemical park in Brunsbuettel, on the North Sea coast.