On February 27th, the Halle (Saale) Administrative Court issued a detention warrant on the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The 19-year-old suspect is suspected of planning a severe state-endangering violent act against the synagogue in Halle, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced on Tuesday. The detention warrant was announced on April 22nd and has been enforced since then.
According to the charges, the suspect had a right-wing extremist motivation. Between July last year and February this year, he announced his plan in a Telegram chat group and obtained a long gun to carry out his plan. A specific time for the commission of the crime has not yet been determined.
The suspect, who was living in Switzerland at the time of the alleged crime, was arrested by Swiss authorities on February 14th. During the arrest, a functional long gun and electronic communication devices were also seized. The surrender to the German authorities took place on April 22nd. The suspect denies having seriously pursued the attack plans. The investigation is ongoing.
The plans bear resemblance to the attack in October 2019, when a right-wing extremist attempted to enter the synagogue and subsequently shot a woman on the street and a man in a fast food restaurant.