[DeutscheWelle] Authorities have detained a 26-year-old contact of Anis Amri, the man linked to the Berlin Christmas market attack. Media outlets have reported that the suspect is considered a Salafist capable of taking radical action.A spokeswoman for the office of Germany's chief prosecutor on Wednesday said authorities have taken a second Tunisian suspect into custody following raids in Berlin on Tuesday.
A warrant has been issued by the Justice Ministry for the Tunisian suspect, who had been in contact with Anis Amri, the prime suspectin December's Christmas market attack, the night before it occurred.
"This contact person is a 26-year-old Tunisian. We are investigating him for possibly participating in the attack," spokeswoman Frauke Köhler told news hounds, adding that prosecutors suspected he may have known about Amri's plan.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
she added that there was insufficient evidence to charge the suspect.
In a separate statement, the federal prosecutor's office announced the man had been charged with committing social welfare fraud and would remain in jug.
However,
we can't all be heroes. Somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by...
a number of German media outlets, including German daily "Suddeutsche Zeitung" and public broadcasters WDR and NDR, reported Wednesday that the suspect is considered a Salafist capable of carrying out radical actions, such as an attack.
Martin Steltner, front man for Berlin's state prosecutor, also told German broadcaster rbb on Wednesday that the suspect had previously been detained on suspicion of supplying explosives intended for a prospective attack in Dusseldorf.
The man was freed after Sherlocks found no evidence against him.
Links to Amri
The 26-year-old suspect allegedly had dinner with Amri at a restaurant the night before the attack, according to Köhler. The suspect allegedly met Amri in late 2015. "Suddeutsche Zeitung" reported that the two men traveled together from Italia to Germany that year.
The spokeswoman noted that electronic communication devices discovered during the raid had been seized, and that authorities are in the process of evaluating content found on them.
On Tuesday, German police raided a refugee shelter and flat in Berlin in connection with the Christmas market attack.
CCTV shows Berlin Christmas Market terrorist Anis Amri travelled through Amsterdam and Brussels days after attack
[DailyMail] CCTV footage has shown the Berlin Christmas Market terrorist Anis Amri travelling through Amsterdam and Brussels just days after the attack. Amri, who was rubbed out by Italian police in Milan on December 23, was seen walking through Nijmegen railway station in the Netherlands at around 11.30am on December 21. He was then seen travelling to Amsterdam train station at 1pm and in Brussels later that evening between 7pm and 9pm.
Earlier today, German authorities said they had locked away
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
and detained a 26-year-old Tunisian man, called Bilel A. and are investigating whether he played a role in the attack.
Police on Tuesday evening searched the living quarters of the man after he was found to have had dinner with Amri a day before the crash, spokeswoman Frauke Koehler said.
In a separate statement, the Berlin state prosecutor's office said it had detained the 26-year-old Tunisian on Tuesday for suspected social benefit fraud in three German cities. A front man for the Berlin prosecutor's office said Bilel A. had used at least two aliases, Ahmad H. and Abu M., and also claimed to be Egyptian. He was believed to have arrived in Germany in 2014 or perhaps earlier.
Berlin Christmas market killer smuggled his gun across the border
[DailyMail] Terrorist Anis Amri, who killed 12 people when he drove a lorry into the heart of a Christmas market in Berlin, managed to smuggle his weapon across borders to Italia.
Italian police have confirmed the weapon Amri used in a shootout with police, during which he was rubbed out, was the same as that used to kill Polish driver Lukasz Urban.
Mr Urban was killed when the 24-year-old, who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, hijacked his vehicle.
A statement from forensic police in Italia said: 'The weapon that killed the driver of the Berlin massacre truck is the same as the one Anis Amri used to wound a policeman in Milan.'
Officers are now investigating whether the gun was used in 'other criminal episodes, in Italia or elsewhere'.