Germany: Soldier suspected of planning terror attack

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - A German lieutenant, who allegedly spent a year living a double life as a Syrian refugee, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of plotting a terror attack.

Frankfurt state prosecutor's office spokeswoman Nadja Niesen said Thursday that the 28-year old soldier and his friend, a 24-year old student, were suspected of planning a serious act of violence.

“Several voice messages have revealed that they were motivated by xenophobic views,” she said in a press conference in Frankfurt, adding that police had found several weapons during searches at the suspects' homes.

The spokeswoman said the German lieutenant had posed as a Syrian asylum seeker under a fake name and stayed for some time at a refugee center in southern Germany last year.

It was not immediately clear how he managed to register as a Syrian refugee, even though he did not speak Arabic.

German media reported that investigators suspected that the German lieutenant deliberately registered as a refugee, in order to pin the blame for a terror attack on refugees.

The suspect first caught the attention of authorities in February, when he tried to hide a pistol in a restroom at the Vienna International Airport, in Austria.

At that time, he was briefly arrested but later released by the Austrian authorities.

German opposition parties had long criticized the government for not taking serious measures against far-right extremists within the German army.

The Defense Ministry had informed parliament early this month that it was investigating 275 suspected right-wing extremists in its ranks.