German police said on Friday they had arrested a 25-year-old Turkish man they suspected of posting an al Qaeda Internet video threatening Germany with an attack after Sunday's federal election. Police in the southern city of Stuttgart said the man was not believed to have been involved in producing the video, in which an al Qaeda member threatened Germany with a "rude awakening" if Berlin did not end its "war" in Afghanistan.
They said it was not clear where the suspect, arrested on Thursday, obtained the material. "The Turkish national is known to the authorities as a supporter of Islamist activists, and had been in the focus of investigators for some time," a police statement said.
"In searching his flat, investigators secured numerous items of evidence. The unemployed suspect, who lived alone, was apparently intensely active on notorious Internet platforms." Germany has 4,200 troops serving with Nato-led forces in Afghanistan.
Two videos have been posted on the Web in the past week in which an al Qaeda messenger, identified by the German interior ministry as German-Moroccan Bekkay Harrach, says Germany will pay a price if voters back a government that supports the deployment. Polls show conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was attending a G20 summit in Pittsburgh on Friday, is likely to win re-election in Sunday's vote. Of the five parties in Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament, only the far-left "Linke" or Left Party is calling for an immediate troop pullout from Afghanistan.