Syrian boy detained over alleged suicide bomb plot set free after German police find no evidence

Police detained a 17-year-old Syrian boy on May 30 for allegedly plotting a suicide bombing attack in Berlin.
PHOTO: AFP

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 17-year-old Syrian boy who was detained for allegedly plotting a suicide bombing attack in Berlin was released on Wednesday (May 31) after investigators failed to find concrete evidence against him, prosecutors said.

The boy, who arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied refugee from the Syrian civil war, was taken into custody on Tuesday (May 30).

Prosecutors found no evidence that he had been planning an atrocity after searching his phone and Internet tablet.

"No concrete evidence was found that he was planning a crime that endangered the state," a spokesman for prosecutors in Potsdam said, adding that there was also no evidence that he was linked to any foreign militant organisation.

"This is not enough for detention, so he is free again," the spokesman added of the boy, who was detained in the Uckermark region north-east of Berlin.

Memories are still fresh in Germany of the Berlin Christmas market attack last December, in which 12 people were killed by a failed asylum seeker who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Last Wednesday, police arrested four suspected Islamists in dawn raids in Berlin as the German capital geared up for a long weekend of mass gatherings, capped by a joint appearance by Chancellor Angela Merkel and former US president Barack Obama.

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