Before the trial of a foiled right-wing extremist terrorist attack on a high school in Essen, the defense announced a confession. A 17-year-old is accused. His client will “confess,” said defense attorney Andreas Wieser in Essen when asked by the dpa. “It’s important to me that you take a close look at such a young person,” said the defense attorney.
“Puberty, corona pandemic, little social contact” – there are a few factors that have to be taken into account. The high school student has already made extensive statements to the psychiatric expert. The young person’s radicalization took place via the Internet, unnoticed by the working parents, the lawyer said.
16 tubular bodies, some prepared with clocks and nails
The access took place on May 12 at 4:20 a.m.: Heavily armed special units stormed into the children’s room of the then 16-year-old in Essen-Borbeck. The officials found not only racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim writings, but also bomb-making materials.
16 pipe bodies, some prepared with clocks and nails, were taken away. “The NRW police may have prevented a nightmare today,” said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) after the operation.
The federal prosecutor then took over the investigation because of the “special importance” of the case. Now she is also representing the prosecution. She accuses the student of preparing a serious act of violence that is dangerous to the state, financing terrorism and violating the Weapons and Explosives Act. The accused faces up to five years in prison under juvenile criminal law.
The high school student arrested in May is said to have planned the right-wing extremist terrorist attack over a long period of time. The trial will begin as a juvenile criminal procedure this Friday and is expected to take place largely behind closed doors. The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court has planned ten days of trial.
He wanted to “kill teachers as well as a larger number of students”
The investigators assume that the then 16-year-old wanted to cause a bloodbath at Essen’s Don Bosco High School on May 13 of this year – he was only arrested the day before after a tip from a classmate in his parents’ house. According to the indictment, he “wanted to kill teachers and a large number of students.”
In August, the Federal Court of Justice issued a decision in which it was unusually clear that the student had a “strong racist attitude”, “massive willingness to use violence” and “harmful tendencies”.
Among other things, police officers had found crossbows, knives, machetes, air pressure pistols and all the essential utensils for the construction of potentially deadly pipe bombs on the German, as an investigation later revealed.
“Massacres” worked out in a “Manifesto”.
The youth worked out the details of the planned “massacre” in a diary and a “manifesto”. He wrote extensive instructions for imitators and recorded video messages.
In prison, he had “openly spoken to staff about his attack plan, his murderous fantasies, his hatred of foreigners” and his admiration for earlier right-wing extremist assassins and “has not yet refrained from doing so”, but on the contrary showed “blind determination”, the Federal Court of Justice stated.
Essen’s Don-Bosco-Gymnasium was temporarily closed after the terrorist plans became known and thoroughly searched with explosives detection dogs. The teenager is said to have hinted at his dark plans to classmates. One of them took it seriously and confided in a teacher.
