FRANKFURT AM MAIN: A Tunisian man arrested in Germany is suspected of trying to build a biological weapon using the deadly poison ricin, prosecutors said Thursday, stressing however there was no indication of any “concrete attack plans.”
The 29-year-old, identified as Sief Allah H, was detained after police stormed his flat in Cologne late Tuesday, where they found unknown “toxic substances” that turned out to be ricin.
“He is strongly suspected of intentionally manufacturing biological weapons,” federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The suspect has been charged with violating German law on the possession of weapons of war, and “preparing a serious act of violence against the state.”
But prosecutors cautioned that it remained unclear whether he was planning to use ricin to carry out an extremist attack in Germany.
“There are no indications that the accused belongs to a terrorist organization, nor of any concrete attack plans at a certain time or place,” they said.
According to German media, the police raid came after German intelligence services were tipped off by foreign authorities who had grown suspicious of the suspect’s online purchases.
Prosecutors said Sief Allah H. started buying the necessary equipment and ingredients to make ricin in mid-May — including an online purchase of “a thousand castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder.”
He succeeded in manufacturing the toxin earlier this month. The dangerous substance has been secured by the authorities, they added.
Ricin — a poison that is produced by processing castor beans — has no known antidote and is one of the world’s most lethal toxins.
It is 6,000 times more powerful than cyanide.
German news weekly Der Spiegel reported that Sief Allah H. was thought to have been following instructions disseminated by Daesh on how to build a bomb containing ricin.
The case comes less than a month after French authorities said they had foiled a terror attack possibly involving the use of ricin. Two brothers of Egyptian origin were arrested.
Germany remains on high alert for extremist attacks after several assaults claimed by Daesh in the country.
In the worst such attack, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri rammed a truck into crowds at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, killing 12.
Tunisian held in Germany ‘sought to build biological weapon’
Tunisian held in Germany ‘sought to build biological weapon’
- A Tunisian man arrested in Germany is suspected of trying to build a biological weapon using the deadly poison ricin.
- The 29-year-old, identified as Sief Allah H, was detained after police stormed his flat in Cologne late Tuesday, where they found ricin.
Indian entrepreneurs look to Middle East for further boost amid small business boom
- Micro, small and medium enterprises contribute about 30% to India’s GDP
- Industry players are particularly optimistic about business growth with Saudi Arabia
NEW DELHI
Indian entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to expand into the Middle East as small businesses in India seek to make the most of their strong growth trajectory.
The country boasts around 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises, up from 47.7 million in July 2024, latest government data shows. The sector contributes to some 30 percent of India’s GDP and 45 percent of its exports.
Amid the boom, Indian entrepreneurs seeking to scale up their businesses are now eyeing collaborations across various sectors with their counterparts in the Middle East.
“We are working with, at present, with … Bahrain, you know, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, by attending various exhibitions, fairs organized by these countries. We are taking world-class Indian MSME delegations to these countries, hundreds of MSMEs, for (business) matchmaking,” Vijay Kumar, director general of the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, told Arab News at the 2025 MSME Day in New Delhi.
He added he was particularly optimistic about the potential for growth for Indian businesses and their counterparts in Saudi Arabia, saying that they were already collaborating.
"(The) future is very good for Saudi MSMEs and Indian MSMEs,” he said. “I’m sure in the coming years not only things will be multiplied … (but) thousands of Saudi MSMEs and Indian MSMEs (will) start (feeling the) benefits and become the global partner(s) for export and providing employment to their own countries.”
The rising interest toward the Middle East is due to the region’s business landscape and its wealth of opportunities, according to Naveen Sharma, chairman of Athena Ventures.
“The reason for Indian MSMEs’ expansion is that nowadays Indian MSMEs are doing very well. They are now flushed with funds, they have the right technology, they have good processes. So they are very keen to expand, and (the) Middle East is a very fertile business environment in which Indian MSMEs can really flourish,” he told Arab News.
“Already many of them have invested there, and as you may be knowing because of the free trade agreements, because of the liberal trade policies, liberal tax policies, many Indian MSMEs are also making Gulf countries their hubs for billing and logistics, all those things.”
The government has described small and medium businesses as the “backbone” of the Indian economy and a key pillar of growth as the sector has emerged as the second-largest employer in the country after agriculture, generating more than 281 million jobs.
Rimjhim Saikia, an entrepreneur and WASME’s joint director, said small and medium enterprises were contributing to transform India into a developed nation.
“We are progressing towards that and a big role is being played by the MSMEs,” Saikia told Arab News.
She said she had witnessed more engagements between India and the Middle East in her sector, adding that there was “a lot of scope for Indian MSMEs to join hands” with their counterparts from the region.
“This is the right time, I would say, for Indian SMEs to actually look towards the Middle East,” she said.
Many small and medium businesses are collaborating with Middle Eastern countries in prominent sectors, including hospitality, pharmaceuticals and textiles.
Having brought over two dozen Indian entrepreneurs to Saudi Arabia herself last September, she said the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation project in particular held massive potential.
“(The) 2030 vision is very important for Saudi, but that also holds a lot of importance for Indian MSMEs because, with the Vision 2030 opens up a plethora of opportunities … both in the manufacturing and the trading sector,” she added.
“I think for everyone, every MSME, there is a lot of hope for a very good … future in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi (Arabia) for expanding their business.”
UK police arrest four over pro-Palestinian protest at air base
- Two activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base in Oxfordshire in central England on June 20
- They sprayed red paint over two planes used for refueling and transport, and further damaged them with crowbars
A woman, 29, and two men aged 36 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, while another woman, 41, was arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, the police statement said.
Two activists from the Palestine Action group broke into the air base in Oxfordshire in central England on June 20, spraying red paint over two planes used for refueling and transport, and further damaging them with crowbars, an act that was condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer as “disgraceful.”
Within days of the incident, interior minister Yvette Cooper set out plans to use anti-terrorism laws to ban Palestine Action, saying its actions had become more aggressive and caused millions of pounds of damage.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems and other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza.
In response to Friday’s arrests, the campaign group accused authorities of “cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine.”
The maximum sentence for preparation of terrorist acts, or to assist others in such preparation, in Britain is a life sentence. The government is also reviewing security across all defense sites.
Israel has repeatedly dismissed accusations that it is committing genocide in the war in Gaza which began when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killing nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage into Gaza.
Israel launched a military campaign that has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to local health authorities in Gaza.
India accused of illegal deportations targeting Muslims
- Activists call the expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling
- New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants
NEW DELHI: India has deported without trial to Bangladesh hundreds of people, officials from both sides said, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who call the recent expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling.
New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants.
The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hard-line stance on immigration — particularly those from neighboring Muslim-majority Bangladesh — with top officials referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators.”
It has also sparked fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh.
“Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,” said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander.
“You have thrown millions into this existential fear.”
Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka’s government, a former friend of India.
But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west — the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir.
New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead.
Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained — and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint.
Rahima Begum, from India’s eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier.
She said she and her family had spent their life in India.
“I have lived all my life here — my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,” she said. “I don’t know why they would do this to me.”
Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark.
“They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,” she told AFP.
“They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.’“
Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who “thrashed” them and ordered they return to India, Begum said.
“As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side,” said the 50-year-old.
“We thought: ‘This is the end. We are all going to die.’“
She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet.
Rights activists and lawyers criticized India’s drive as “lawless.”
“You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,” said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde.
Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added.
Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May.
Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500.
The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across — because they were Indian citizens.
India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.
Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage laborers in states governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists.
Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported.
But Assam state’s chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh.
Separately, Gujarat’s police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah.
Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released.
“People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,” said Mander, the activist.
Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh.
He managed to cross back, and is now back in India’s West Bengal state, where he said he was born.
“The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,” said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work.
“I showed them my government-issued ID, but they just would not listen.”
South Korea court rejects arrest warrant for ex-President Yoon, Yonhap says
- South Korea’s special prosecutor had asked the court on Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon Suk Yeol
- Former president facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges for issuing the martial law declaration
A spokesperson for the Seoul Central District Court and the prosecution office could not immediately be reached for comment.
South Korea’s special prosecutor had asked the court on Tuesday to issue an arrest warrant for Yoon as an investigation intensified over the ousted leader’s botched bid to declare martial law in December.
Yoon, who is already facing a criminal trial on insurrection charges for issuing the martial law declaration, was arrested in January after resisting authorities trying to take him into custody, but was released after 52 days on technical grounds.
The new warrant was on a charge of obstruction, a senior member of the special prosecutor’s team of investigators said on Tuesday.
Georgia tightens screws on opposition, jails more leaders
- Opposition figures and rights activists are being targeted in a wave of arrests and prosecutions
TBILISI: Georgia jailed two prominent opposition figures on Friday, the latest in a string of sentences that critics condemn as a crackdown on dissent that puts nearly all opposition leaders behind bars.
Georgia has faced political unrest since the ruling Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October’s parliamentary elections.
The opposition rejected the results, triggering mass protests that escalated after the government suspended negotiations on joining the European Union.
Protesters accuse the ruling party of drifting toward authoritarianism and aligning the country with Moscow — allegations the government denies.
Opposition figures and rights activists are being targeted in a wave of arrests and prosecutions.
On Friday, a Tbilisi court ordered Nika Melia — the co-leader of the key opposition Akhali party — to be jailed for eight months.
Another prominent opposition politician, Givi Targamadze, was sentenced to seven months in prison.
The two were also barred from holding public office for two years.
They were convicted of failing to cooperate with a divisive parliamentary enquiry probing alleged abuses under jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Saakashvili, a pro-Western reformer, is serving a 12.5-year sentence on charges widely condemned by rights groups as politically motivated.
Melia has been in pre-trial detention since late May.
Targamadze, a member of Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), said he believed his sentence was “a Russian order.”
In 2016, he survived a bomb attack when his car exploded in central Tbilisi just days before parliamentary elections.
Nearly all of Georgia’s opposition leaders have been jailed this month on charges similar to those levelled at Melia and Targamadze.
They have dismissed the parliamentary commission as illegitimate and accused Georgian Dream of using it to silence dissent.
Ahead of last year’s elections, Georgian Dream announced plans to outlaw all major opposition parties.
