According to the public prosecutor, the suspects, an Egyptian national, a Syrian national, and three Moroccan nationals aged between 22 and 56, were detained on suspicion of plotting an attack on a Christmas market in Bavaria. One of the men is alleged to have preached in a mosque and called for a terrorist assault, leading investigators to believe the motive was Islamist.
The public prosecutor stated that the 56-year-old Egyptian is accused of urging people to use a vehicle “to carry out an attack on a Christmas market in the Dingolfing–Landau area during the festive season, with the intention of killing or injuring as many people as possible”. Under Bavarian criminal law, such a statement is treated as an attempted incitement to murder, according to the public prosecutor.
According to police and the public prosecutor, three further suspects, aged 30, 28 and 22, all Moroccan nationals, are believed to have subsequently agreed to take part in the planned attack, while a fifth man, a 37-year-old Syrian, is suspected of encouraging them in that decision.
The five suspects were taken into custody on Friday by special units and appeared before an investigating judge in Munich on Saturday. The Munich prosecutor’s office requested arrest warrants for four of the accused, which were issued the same day. Four individuals are now being held on remand in different prisons, while the fifth was detained preventively following the judge’s order.
