Syrian terror suspect commits suicide with T-shirt

BERLIN — A Syrian refugee detained this week on suspicion of planning a bomb attack strangled himself by tying his shirt to the bars of his jail cell, the Justice Ministry said Thursday. Jaber al-Bakr, 22, had been captured by fellow refugees.

The ministry said al-Bakr took his own life late Wednesday at a prison in Leipzig in eastern Germany. He was arrested Monday after a two-day manhunt that began when he evaded security forces during a raid at his apartment. The hunt ended after three Syrians who realized al-Bakr was being sought by police subdued him at their apartment and turned him in.

Rolf Jacob, the head of the prison, said al-Bakr was found hanged in his cell. His defense lawyer Alexander Huebner said his client killed himself even though prison authorities had assured him he was under permanent surveillance.

He described al-Bakr's death as a "scandal" and said the prison's employees were aware he was a suicide risk. Al-Bakr had been on a hunger strike since his apprehension. Al-Bakr was checked on 15 minutes prior to his death.

"This should not have happened even though we did everything we could to prevent it," said Sebastian Gemkow, Saxony’s justice minister.

The incident casts new attention on authorities in the state of Saxony, who have been criticized for allowing al-Bakr to avoid capture at a time when Europe is in a heightened state of alert following a string of terror attacks. Explosives and a home-made bomb vest were found in his apartment.

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"How can someone, who's supposedly under constant surveillance, be found hanged?" Tobias Lindner, a German politician with the opposition Green Party, tweeted. Volker Beck, another German lawmaker with the Greens, echoed that sentiment. "How could this happen," Beck wrote on the social media platform.

Al-Bakr's death also comes as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has faced repeated criticism over her decision to admit 890,000 asylum seekers — including hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees — last year. She has been accused of leaving Germany ill-prepared for the influx and susceptible to attacks. Merkel has suffered stinging setbacks in regional elections that have seen voters embrace the far-right Alternative for Germany party — viewed as a verdict on her migrant policies.

So far investigators have said they believe al-Bakr had links to the Islamic State group and may have been planning to attack one of Berlin's airports. They also said he was granted asylum after coming to Germany last year, and had been under surveillance by German domestic intelligence since last month.

But they have offered little detail on why a security check on him last year did not turn up anything suspicious or how he was able to produce the powerful bomb-making materials discovered in his apartment. Authorities have declined to comment on German media reports that al-Bakr spent several months in Turkey this summer — after he was granted asylum — when he may have traveled to Syria.