The 32-year-old suspect was believed to have procured lethal poisons including cyanide and ricin, but authorities have confirmed that no evidence was found on the premises….reports Asian Lite News
Anti-terror investigators in Germany have arrested an Iranian national on suspicion of preparing a religiously motivated attack.
Emergency service personnel wearing protective suits and oxygen masks searched a flat in Castrop-Rauxel, in the Ruhr region, for biological weapons.
The 32-year-old suspect was believed to have procured lethal poisons including cyanide and ricin, but authorities have confirmed that no evidence was found on the premises.
A total of two men were reportedly taken into custody.
The highly toxic ricin is listed as a biological weapon, while even the smallest amount of cyanide can have a lethal effect on humans.
Investigations are ongoing to establish how far attack plans had progressed and whether there was a concrete target.
Last week, an employee of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has been arrested on suspicion of treason for allegedly passing secret information to Russia, German prosecutors said.
The man, a German citizen who was identified only as Carsten L. in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Berlin on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The apartment and workplace of the employee of the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, and of another person were searched, prosecutors said but gave no details on the second person.
They said the BND employee passed this year “information that he had acquired in his professional activity” to a Russian intelligence service, which they didn’t identify.
They added that the information was a “state secret” as defined by Germany’s criminal code, but did not elaborate.
The suspect was brought Thursday before a judge, who ordered him held in custody pending a possible indictment, prosecutors said. The investigation was being conducted “in close cooperation” with the BND, they said.
The head of the BND, Bruno Kahl, said the intelligence service brought in prosecutors immediately after internal investigations substantiated information about a possible case of treason. He said there were searches at two BND properties.
In a previous case involving a suspected double agent at the agency, a former BND employee in 2016 was convicted of violating Germany’s official secrets law and sentenced to eight years in prison for providing classified information, largely to the CIA.
Germany is among the countries that have given financial and military support to Ukraine as it faces Russia’s invasion.