Berlin attack suspect ‘was investigated over benefit fraud’
● Amri thought to be claiming money in two towns under different names
Prosecutors in western Germany have revealed they opened a fraud investigation earlier this year against Anis Amri, the main suspect in the Berlin Christmas market truck attack.
Officials suspected that he was simultaneously claiming benefits in two towns under different identities.
Detlef Nowotsch, a spokesman for prosecutors in Duisburg, said the investigation was opened in April but shelved in November because Amri’s whereabouts were unknown.
Amri was accused of receiving asylum-seeker benefits in both Emmerich and Oberhausen for a few days in late 2015. He is believed to 0 Anisamri waskilledin Milan on 23 December have driven the truck that ploughed into a Christmas market in the German capital on 19 December, killing 12 people. His fingerprints and wallet were found in the truck.
The Tunisian arrived in Germany in July 2015. Authorities later put him on a list of potentially violent Islamic extremists. Amri was killed in a shootout with Italian police in Milan on 23 December.
German prosecutors later said they have released a Tunisian man who was detained in Berlin on Wednesday after determining that he was not in contact with Amri.
Federal prosecutors said at the time that the 40-year-old’s telephone number was saved in Amri’s mobile, and that they suspected he may have been involved in the attack.
Italian premier Paolo Gentiloni has said there are no indications that Amri had any particular contacts in Italy.
Italian investigators are trying to determine whether Amri was tapping a jihadi network in Italy, his port of entry in early 2011 during the Arab Spring.
Mr Gentiloni said: “No particular networks have emerged in Italy.”
Amri died of a single gunshot wound last Friday after shooting an officer in the shoulder during a routine police stop in the working class Milan suburb of Sesto San Giovanni.
He was earlier spotted alone outside a deserted train station in the early hours.