First evidence on the bombing attack in the Probsteigasse in Cologne

On 19 January 2001, the daughter of an Iranian shop owner in the Probsteigasse in Cologne opened a cake tin which had been left in the shop roughly a month earlier. The tin contained a bomb which was built to detonate when the tin was opened. The young woman, 19 years old at the time, was severely injured.

Today the Court started hearing evidence regarding the attack. A police officer described the crime scene – the shop had been entirely destroyed, there had been a risk of fatal injury for anyone within 7 meters of the explosion. Obviously the bomb had been built to kill. Another officer described the way the bomb, containing a gas bottle filled with gun powder, was built to explode on opening.

The former head investigator stated that (once again) the police had had no idea regarding a motive. The aimlessness of their investigation was summarized in the following statement: “The owner was a foreigner, so this could have come from the right, it could also have come from the left, he was Iranian, it could also have come from that side.”

Witnesses in the following days include the young woman who was injured, her family as well as further police officers.