Tunisian hunted by Germany was seen earlier as terror threat

BERLIN (AP) — German authorities have launched a Europe-wide manhunt for a Tunisian man with ties to Islamic extremists who has been identified as a suspect in the Berlin Christmas market attack, lawmakers said Wednesday.

A German security official said authorities had considered him a possible terror threat previously and had been trying to deport him after his asylum application was rejected this summer.

The man is being sought in Germany and across Europe’s border-free travel zone, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said after briefing Parliament’s domestic affairs committee. He stressed “this is a suspect, not necessarily the perpetrator. We are still investigating in all directions.”

Twelve people were killed and 48 others injured when a truck plowed into a popular Berlin market Monday evening. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility.

De Maiziere wouldn’t give details on the new suspect, but committee members said he’s believed to be Tunisian.

The man is in his early 20s and apparently has used various identities, said Stephan Mayer, a senior lawmaker with Germany’s governing conservatives. He said the man was considered part of the “Salafist-Islamist scene” by authorities.

Germany’s chief federal prosecutor told lawmakers that “this Tunisian is a solid lead, his wallet was found in the cab of the truck, but that it’s not clear that he was also the perpetrator,” said Burkhard Lischka of the Social Democrats, the junior governing party.

The new suspect apparently arrived in Germany in 2015 and lived in three German regions since February, mostly in Berlin, said Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister of western North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Jaeger said that “security agencies exchanged information about this person in the joint counter-terrorism center, the last time in November.”

Jaeger told reporters on Wednesday that state police had launched proceedings against the man on suspicion that he was preparing a serious crime.

Separately, the man’s asylum application was rejected in July. German authorities detained him in preparation to deport him but weren’t able to do so because he didn’t have valid identity papers, Jaeger said, and in August they started trying to get him a replacement passport.

“Tunisia at first denied that this person was its citizen, and the papers weren’t issued for a long time,” Jaeger said. “They arrived today.”