German intelligence agency deny reports Salah Abdeslam had German nuclear files
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has denied reports that Salah Abdeslam, a prime suspect in the Paris attacks, possessed documents about a nuclear research centre in Germany.
Newspapers in the Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland (RND) media group
said on Thursday that documents were found relating to the Juelich
centre near the Belgium-Germany border, which is used for the storage of
atomic waste.
The centre said in a statement that there was no indication of any
danger and that Juelich was in contact with security authorities and
nuclear supervisors.
The RND newspapers cited sources within the parliamentary control
committee, whose meetings are confidential, as saying that Hans-Georg
Maaßen, the head of the domestic intelligence agency (BfV), told the
nine-person committee at the end of March that Abdeslam had the
documents.
It said he had disclosed to the committee, which monitors the work
of German security agencies, that printouts of articles from the
internet and photos of the Juelich chairman, Wolfgang Marquardt, had
been found in Abdeslam’s apartment in the Molenbeek area of Brussels.
The BfV on Thursday denied Maaßen had briefed the committee. “This is
not right,” a spokeswoman said. “We have no information about this. Our
president Maaßen never talked to any members of parliament.”
Two committee members also told Reuters that they had not been informed about the matter.
RND earlier reported that several members of the Bundestag and a
terrorism expert at the BfV said they knew of this information and that
Maaßen had confidentially informed them.
Abdeslam, born and raised in Belgium to Moroccan-born parents, was arrested on 18 March in Brussels. Four days later, suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels airport and on a rush-hour metro train.
Concerns that Islamic extremists are turning their attention to potential weak spots in the nuclear industry have risen since the attacks.
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