Prosecutor says Dortmund suspect may have been Isis member

A German court on Thursday granted prosecutors an arrest warrant against a man detained after the bomb attack on a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team this week.

The prosecutor’s office said that the man, whom it identified as a 26-year-old Iraqi citizen named Abdul Beset A, was suspected of having been a member of the terror group Isis in Iraq.

But they said that they had so far found no evidence that he had been involved in Tuesday’s attack on Dortmund’s bus, which left two people injured, and forced the German team’s Champions League quarter-final against French side AS Monaco to be delayed 24 hours.

Prosecutors said that the man was suspected of having become involved with Isis in Iraq by the end of 2014, where they allege he was in charge of a 10-man unit that was tasked with preparing killings, kidnappings and blackmail.

Prosecutors believe he also fought for the jihadi group, before leaving for Turkey in March 2015, and then making his way to Germany at the beginning of 2016, where he allegedly remained in contact with members of Isis.

German authorities are continuing to investigate the attack, in which three explosives hidden in a hedge were detonated as the vehicle drove past, injuring the Dortmund player Marc Bartra, and leaving a policeman escorting the bus by motorbike with blast trauma.

The devices were packed with shards of metal, one of which embedded itself in the headrest of one of the seats in the bus.

Frauke Köhler, spokeswoman for Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office, said on Wednesday that the techniques used in the attack led investigators to suspect a terrorist background. However, while she said that an Islamist link was “possible”, she said the precise motive for the attack remained unclear.

Angela Merkel, who is running for a fourth term as chancellor in an election this September in which security is likely to be a key topic, said on Thursday that some of Germany’s states had ground to make up in their efforts to combat terror.

In an interview with the Funke media group, Ms Merkel said that anti-terror laws were “unfortunately very different” in different parts of the country, and urged Germany’s states, which have significant autonomy under the country’s federal system, to do more to harmonise their security arrangements.

“We will never resign ourselves to terror,” she said. “And where necessary, we will change our laws.”

Monaco won Wednesday evening’s rescheduled game 3-2. The second leg will be played on Wednesday April 19.