Who is Anis Amri? Berlin attack suspect 'was in direct contact with Isis and had school arson conviction'

Suspect: Anis Amri
Allan Hall22 December 2016

Berlin market massacre suspect Anis Amri had “direct contact” with Isis and was previously jailed for torching a school, it is claimed.

American security officials say he was in touch with Islamic State and had scoured the Internet earlier this year looking for information on how to build a bomb.

He was on a flight-ban list barring him from entering the USA and was supposed to be kicked out of Germany this year after his asylum application failed because of his fanaticism.

It appears he first travelled to Europe in 2012 and, according to Radio Mosaique in his Tunisian homeland, he was given a four-year sentence in Italy for setting fire to a school.

He entered Germany in July 2015 through the city of Freiburg and was almost immediately on the radar of the intelligence and security services.

But it was not until the start of this year that his status as a dangerous person was registered when he moved in with Salafist hate preacher Boban S in Dortmund.

Attack: The truck was used to kill 12 people and injure another 50 
Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters

Authorities observed that he assumed multiple identities, with accompanying paperwork, at will.

It appears that although he registered as an asylum seeker in Emmerich-am-Rhein, he actually spent most of his time in Berlin. Authorities there picked up the observation of him.

In Berlin he moved in a seedy drug underworld, often observed by police in Gorlitzer Park in the city where narcotics are openly traded.

He was arrested three times this year, once for getting into a knife fight over drugs, but was never taken out of circulation despite the fears that he was plotting terror.

Due to be deported, he was allowed to stay on because he had no passport and Tunisia initially denied he was a citizen.

Manhunt: The devastation in Berlin after Monday’s attack
Markus Schreiber/AP

Only on Wednesday this week did Tunisia acknowledge he was from the country and forwarded on a passport to Berlin.

It emerged today he spent one day in custody this year awaiting deportation in July but was allowed to go free when his identity could not be established beyond doubt.

Aside from the conviction in Italy, he was sentenced to five years in absentia in Tunisia for a violent armed robbery.

Berlin terror attack: Horror as lorry ploughs into crowds

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He was also sentenced in 2010 in Tunisia to a jail term for stealing an HGV similar to the one used on Monday to murder 12 and injure 50 at the Christmas market in the heart of Berlin, Die Welt reported.

Despite his attempts to buy a gun, despite his affiliation with extremist preachers and despite his known links with Isis, German intelligence called off the observation of him in September.

A furious Angela Merkel is demanding answers from the intelligence community as she struggles to restore faith in her government ahead of the general election next year when she will seek a fourth term in office.

Police raids took place in several German towns and cities, including two apartments in Berlin, overnight.

After German media published photos of him and a partial name, prosecutors issued a public appeal for information along with the promise of a £84,000 reward for his arrest.

Within hours it emerged that the man authorities warned could be "violent and armed" had in fact been known to them for months as someone with ties to Islamic extremists who used at least six different names and three different nationalities.

"People are rightly outraged and anxious that such a person can walk around here, keep changing his identity and the legal system can't cope with them," said Rainer Wendt, the head of a union representing German police.

The authorities had initially focused their investigation on a Pakistani man detained shortly after the attack, but released him a day later for lack of evidence.

After finding documents belonging to Amri in the cab of the truck, they issued a notice to other European countries early on Wednesday seeking his arrest.

Isis, which claimed responsibility for Monday's attack, did not identify Amri as the man witnesses saw fleeing from the truck, but described him as "a soldier of the Islamic State" who "carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition".

Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said he was "a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator".

"We are still investigating in all directions," he said.

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