Cologne Cathedral terror alert: European arrest warrant from Austria for suspect Corruption trial against main American arms lobbyist – and he resigns

A man arrested in connection with the Cologne Cathedral terror warning will not be released due to a European arrest warrant from Austria. The Cologne police announced on Sunday that extradition proceedings were pending at the Public Prosecution Service in Cologne.

The court in Cologne then issued a so-called arrest warrant, the police said. The 30-year-old Tajik was transferred to the Cologne Correctional Facility. The suspect was arrested on Christmas Eve in Wesel on the Lower Rhine. According to previous reports, he was in long-term custody until Sunday.

According to the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office, the arrest warrant was issued on suspicion of terrorism. The measure is related to the group of suspects arrested in Vienna, a spokeswoman for the German news agency said. She did not want to provide further details.

“Tracework of people from Central Asia”

Shortly before Christmas, security authorities received information about a planned terrorist attack in Cologne Cathedral or in the area around the cathedral. Islamist extremists should support this. After further investigation, police reported on New Year’s Eve that it involved a “network of people from Central Asia”. A car is said to have been used in the attack.

Four other men were arrested in North Rhine-Westphalia on New Year’s Eve in connection with the investigation. Three of them, aged 25, 30 and 38, had Tajik or Uzbek citizenship and were arrested in Nörvenich in the Düren district and in Duisburg and Herne in the Ruhr area, the fourth, a 41-year-old German Turk, in Bochum.

Only the man arrested in Düren, a 25-year-old Tajik, was taken into long-term custody on court order. He can be held until January 14. The others were released on New Year’s Day. The police emphasized that the arrests were to avert danger.

Suspicion of terrorism also in Vienna

In addition to the tip about the possible attack plan in Cologne, security authorities had also received a tip before Christmas about a possible planned attack on a church in Vienna. The police also increased security measures in Vienna at Christmas.

One of three suspects arrested in Vienna on suspicion of terrorism shortly before Christmas was released on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Vienna Regional Court told dpa. Whether the other two remain in custody will be decided in the coming days. According to information from the DPA, the released man is a man with Chechen roots, while those still held in Vienna are a Tajik and a woman with Turkish roots.

On New Year’s Eve – the day on which the attack in Cologne was reportedly planned – the police secured the cathedral with around a thousand emergency services. Since Christmas, the medieval cathedral has only been accessible to churchgoers and no longer to tourists. The police cannot yet say when security measures will be reduced again. (sda/dpa)