Germany: Group Plotted to Bomb Mosques, Refugees

4 being held on terrorism charges
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 6, 2015 4:13 AM CDT
Germany: Group Plotted to Bomb Mosques, Refugees
Participants hold German flags during an anti-Islam and anti-foreigner demonstration in Dresden, eastern Germany, last year.   (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

German authorities conducted raids across the country today, seizing explosives and arresting four people accused of founding a right-wing extremist group to attack mosques and housing for asylum seekers. Police arrested three men and a woman accused of leading the group during raids by some 250 investigators on homes in Saxony and four other states, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. Prosecutors allege the four helped found the "Old School Society" group and were planning to attack asylum-seeker housing, mosques, and well-known members of the Islamic-extremist Salafist scene in Germany.

The four arrested, identified only as Andreas H., 56, Markus W., 39, Denise Vanessa G., 22, and Olaf O., 47, are being held on terrorism charges and are also accused of having procured explosives. "According to current investigations, it was the group's goal to conduct attacks in smaller groups inside Germany on well-known Salafists, mosques, and asylum-seeker centers," the statement from prosecutors said. "For this purpose the four arrested procured explosives for possible terror attacks by the group." Prosecutors said they're still trying to determine whether the group had concrete attack plans and refused to comment beyond their written statement. (More Germany stories.)

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