Author: AP
Publication: The Australian
Date: August 21, 2006
URL: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20195274-2703,00.html
A Lebanese student suspected of helping to
plant two bombs that failed to explode on German trains last month has been
arrested.
The 21-year-old was detained yesterday, a day after investigators released
surveillance footage from July 31, the day of the bombing attempt, showing
two men with heavy luggage believed to be the bombs.
The man was arrested at the weekend at the
main station in the Baltic port city of Kiel, where he lived and studied.
Chief prosecutor Monika Harms said he apparently had planned to flee Germany,
but she did not say where he wanted to go.
Prosecutors said the suspect was identified
with the help of the surveillance footage, from Cologne station, and DNA traces
from one of the suitcases in which the bombs were found.
Joerg Ziercke, head of Germany's Federal Crime
Office, said he was confident of the case. "We caught the right suspected
bomb planter here in Kiel today."
The devices, made with gas canisters, were
found on trains in Dortmund and Koblenz, both of which had stopped in Cologne.
They were apparently supposed to explode simultaneously, 10 minutes before
the trains arrived at those stations.
A scrap of paper with Arabic script listing
groceries and phone numbers in Lebanon was found in clothing surrounding one
gas canister. Small bags of starch, also from Lebanon and available in Germany,
were also found.
Investigators believe the attackers may have
wanted to send a message related to fighting in the Middle East, but were
tightlipped on possible motives.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said in
a statement that the German leader was "relieved" at the arrest,
which she described as "a great success in the fight against terrorism".
Ms Harms said the suspect had gone to Germany
in September 2004 and identified him only by his first names, Youssef Mohamad.
He had been living in Kiel since February 2005 and studied mechatronics -
a combination of mechanics, information technology and electronics. Officials
said they were still seeking the second suspect from the video, and had not
identified him.
