Radical Islamists go on trial for bomb and murder plot 08.09.2014
Four alleged terrorists from the Islamist Salafi movement went on trial under high security in the western German city of Düsseldorf on Monday, accused of attempted violent crimes.
The accused have been charged with the attempted murder of the chairman of the right-wing extremist party “Pro NRW” in March, 2013.
According to federal prosecutor Horst Salzmann, the four men wanted to take “violent revenge” for caricatures criticizing Islam issued by the party during its regional election campaign in 2012. The caricatures included some depicting the Prophet Mohammed – something Islam forbids.
In addition to charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, the defendants, aged from 24 to 44, also stand accused of founding a terrorist group and of violating German weapons laws.
‘Malicious attempt’
One of the four men, 27-year-old Marco G., is additionally accused of having tried to carry out a bomb attack at Bonn’s main railway station on December 10, 2012.
Marco G., a German Muslim convert from the northern city of Oldenburg, had intended to kill or severely injure as many people on the railway platform as possible “maliciously and from base motives,” Salzmann said in his opening speech for the prosecution.
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