A 29-year-old man on Wednesday, appeared in a Berlin court for allegedly planning an Islamist terrorist attack.

The man is accused of planning an attack in 2019 with the goal of killing or injuring as many people as possible.

His arrest in November 2019 prevented him from going ahead with the plot, the prosecution said as it read the indictment before the German capital’s higher regional court.

The prosecution accused the Syrian national of preparing a serious act of violence against the state and terrorist financing.

The young man, dressed in dark clothing, listened quietly to the charges against him, when asked by the presiding judge to confirm his identity, he nodded without saying anything.

According to his defence lawyer, he will not comment on the charges. However, the accused is already in prison for other crimes.

In May 2020, the Berlin regional court sentenced him to three years and two months in prison for instruction to commit a serious act of violence against the state.

The charges in the current trial partly overlapped with those from that case, which focused on instructions and information gathered for the construction of explosives and weapons.

According to earlier statements by the authorities, the man entered Germany as a refugee in 2014 and was granted a residence permit.

According to the indictment, he has been involved with radical Islamist ideas since July 2017,  and has advocated the ideology of the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

He was alleged to have been considering carrying out an attack in Germany since November 2018 at the latest.

(dpa/NAN)