Germany has 7,000 TERROR SUSPECTS who are 'almost IMPOSSIBLE' to track, ex-spy chief says
GERMANY is finding it “almost impossible” to keep track of the 7,000 terror suspects in the country, a former head of MI6 counter-terrorism has claimed.
Richard Barrett said that the authorities was struggling to cope with the number of “live” cases in the country.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said that there were around 550 “really extreme potential terrorists on the books”.
He added: “In addition to that though if you include all the Lander (local regions) in Germany they have about 7,000 live cases.
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“As you can imagine, that is an almost impossible number to control.”
For Mr Barrett, the wider group of potential suspects were those who had “come to attention in this context of radical extremism” and therefore “worthy of investigation”.
The evaluation from the 68-year-old comes after German security forces are under the spotlight following the Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people and injured 48.
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It has been revealed that the main suspect Anis Amris should have been deported several months ago.
The 24-year-old Tunisian had been under surveillance from German intelligence after he arrived in the country in 2015 and had been arrested three times already this year.
After his asylum application had been rejected he was expected to be deported – but his deportation papers were never served and he slipped under the radar despite being a known radical who is alleged to have had weapons training.
Only last month intelligence services believed he was planning a “serious act of violence against the state” but it would appear they lost track of him as recently just a few weeks ago.
Police are now desperate to apprehend Mr Amri and have placed a reward of 100,000 euros for information.
Yesterday evening it was revealed that Mr Amri had used at least six different aliases under three different nationalities.
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in September this year that there were 520 people in Germany that were capable of committing “unexpected: and “high-profile” terrorist attacks.
He also admitted the number of potential terrorists in Germany was at its highest number in history.
Mr de Maiziere admitted there were about 360 people who were “closely affiliated” with Muslim extremists.
