Two brothers planned to blow up church in Sweden

Two brothers may have planned an explosive attack on a church - now they are in pre-trial detention

Possible target: a church in Sweden

An attack on churchgoers in Sweden - that was allegedly the goal of two Syrians from Kempten and Hamburg, according to investigators. The younger of the brothers in Allgäu may have played a bigger role than initially assumed.

They allegedly planned an explosive attack on churchgoers in Sweden - now two Syrian brothers from Hamburg and Allgäu are in custody. The younger of the two suspects was arrested in Kempten on Monday and brought to the Hanseatic city, the public prosecutor's office and police in Hamburg announced on Tuesday. According to the investigators, the 24-year-old could have played a much bigger role in the attack plans than initially assumed.

According to the information, the 24-year-old not only encouraged his older brother in his plans and helped him to procure material for the production of explosives. In fact, the man had agreed to carry out the attack together with the 28-year-old from Hamburg. The target was a church in Sweden, where people were supposed to be at the time of the attack. The investigators did not give details about the target.

Brothers planned alleged attack in Sweden: The younger one was initially accused of aiding and abetting

The two brothers were arrested in Hamburg and Kempten at the end of April for allegedly planning an attack with a homemade explosive belt. However, the Hamburg district court had initially only issued an arrest warrant for the 28-year-old, who was listed as the main suspect.

His younger brother, on the other hand, was taken into preventive police custody in Bavaria, which judges in the Free State can order for up to one month to prevent further offences. This preventive custody would have expired on Tuesday, according to the original order of the Memmingen district court. One day earlier, the 24-year-old was arrested from custody and brought to Hamburg, according to a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office.

The two men allegedly came to Germany in 2015, not together. During searches of their flats and of contact persons, investigators had seized extensive evidence, including chemical substances and mobile phones.

According to the spokesperson, both brothers are now also accused of preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state. Initially, the investigators had only assumed that they were financing terrorism and aiding and abetting a planned explosive attack. "At that time, however, we did not assume a concrete target for the attack," said the spokeswoman for the authorities. The investigations are continuing.

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