German police on Tuesday (February 28) searched more than 20 properties in Berlin with links to a mosque visited by the Tunisian asylum seeker who killed 12 people at a Christmas market.
About 450 officers have been searching apartments, two companies’ premises and six prison cells connected to an organisation called “Fussilet 33 e.V.”, which ran the mosque, since 6 a.m. (0500 GMT), police said, adding that they had searched 24 properties and searches were ongoing
Andreas Geisel, interior minister for the state of Berlin, is due to give further details at a news conference at 1 p.m. (1200 GMT).
The federal prosecutor has said that Anis Amri, the Berlin attacker, visited a mosque run by the “Fussilet 33 e.V.” organisation on the day of the December attack.
On Jan. 31 German police arrested three men on suspicion of having close links to Islamic State militants and planning to travel to the Middle East for combat training.
Mass circulation daily newspaper Bild reported that those men were frequent visitors at a mosque in the Berlin district of Moabit that Amri also used to visit.
(Reuters)
