Monday, January 20
False terror tip leads to wrongful arrest, charges dropped
Last October, German police received a tip-off from a foreign intelligence service about an imminent terrorist plot to attack the Israeli embassy in Berlin with firearms. The tip included excerpts from a chat conversation where the suspect, Omar A., a 28-year-old Libyan living in refugee housing in Berlin, allegedly expressed his intention to carry out the attack.
Following the tip, German authorities acted swiftly, arresting Omar A. in the early hours of October 19 and searching his property. The media quickly picked up the story, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) condemning the alleged “cowardly attack plan” and the Israeli ambassador decrying “Muslim anti-Semitism.” But there was a crucial issue: the chat excerpts were fake, and now, three months later, Omar A. has been released and cleared of all charges.
It turns out that while Omar A. had indeed chatted online, including with the person named in the foreign tip, he had been seeking a wife—not planning an attack. Investigators later determined that not only had he never mentioned any planned assault, but the chat excerpts themselves had been deliberately fabricated.
