Berlin attack suspect named, Tunisia police question his family

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were on Wednesday questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market

Tunisian anti-terrorism police were on Wednesday questioning the family of Anis Amri, the prime suspect in the deadly truck assault on a Berlin Christmas market, a security official told AFP.

The wanted poster issued by German federal police shows 24-year-old Tunisian Anis Amri who is suspected of being involved in the fatal attack on the Christmas market in Berlin on Dec. 19, 2016. (AP)

“A unit of the anti-terrorism brigade has questioned the suspect’s family,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

German prosecutors on Wednesday named 24-year-old Tunisian national Amri as their main suspect in the attack claimed by the Islamic State group, which killed 12 people.

The Tunisian security official said Amri’s parents, who live in the central town of Oueslatia, were being questioned.

Amri has four sisters and a brother, the source said, but it was unclear if anyone else was being questioned.

The source said Amri had been arrested several times in Tunisia for alleged drug use.

He fled Tunisia to Italy after the 2011 revolution that overthrew longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and spent three years there before travelling on to Germany, the source said.

Contacted by AFP, Tunisia’s interior and foreign ministries refused to comment on the case.

Upon naming Amri as the prime suspect, the federal prosecutor’s office in Germany offered a reward of 100,000 euros for information leading to his arrest.

It also warned he “could be violent and armed”.