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Police struggling to find evidence against Cologne terror suspects

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Police struggling to find evidence against Cologne terror suspects
Photo: DPA

The two men arrested at the Cologne-Bonn airport on September 26 under suspicion of terrorist intentions may be released because police have failed to find adequate evidence against them, according to Cologne daily Express.

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The two suspects of Somali origin, Abdirazak B. (23) and Omar Ahmet D. (24), are thought to have been planning a terrorist attack in the near future, but other than that, police have “nothing new” in the investigation, police spokesperson Fred Apostel told the paper on Wednesday.

Both young men remain in police custody on remand, but their lawyers say they should be released for lack of evidence. “In our opinion, the body of evidence is too thin,” B.'s lawyer Boris Krösing told the paper. “We don't have a where, when or how.”

The police say the men had been under police surveillance for some time and say they found two suicide notes that mentioned “holy war” in one of their apartments as well as suspicious text messages.

Police removed the men on Friday from a KLA airliner at the Cologne-Bonn airport and conducted a full search of the plane before it continued its journey to Amsterdam. B.'s lawyer Krösing told the paper that both men had return tickets from their final destination of Uganda, where B. allegedly planned to donate money to an aid organization.

The young man's arrest has been a sensation in his home town of Bonn, where he lived with his mother, the paper reported, adding that he was popular at his football club and had planned to begin an internship in November.

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