German charged with Islamist attack plot against Jewish institution

German prosecutors say they have charged a 25-year-old man with plotting a deadly Islamist attack on a Jewish institution.

The German suspect, who was arrested in May and who was not named, was allegedly ready to die and planned to release a video blaming Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s support for Israel for the attack.

Two co-accused, men aged 18 and 25, have been charged with aiding and abetting the murder plot targeting a Jewish institution in either Frankfurt or Heidelberg.

Prosecutors say the main suspect flew to Turkey in April with the intention of crossing to Syria to join Islamist fighters, but then abandoned the plan and returned to Germany. Back home, the man from the Heilbronn area in southwest Germany allegedly exchanged ideas with the 18-year-old, a dual German-Turkish citizen, about what was meant to be a deadly attack.

“The motive was hatred of people of the Jewish faith,” prosecutors in Stuttgart say.

When police moved to arrest the main suspect in May, he allegedly attacked them with knives and was shot in the arm and leg. He was charged in September with attempted manslaughter.

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