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| Anis Amri, Suspect in the Berlin Truck Attack: What Is Known | Anis Amri, Suspect in the Berlin Truck Attack: What Is Known |
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| BERLIN — Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who turned 24 on Thursday, is the chief suspect in a Europe-wide investigation into Germany’s worst terrorist attack in decades. His fingerprints and identity document were found inside a tractor-trailer that plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening, killing 12 people and injuring about 50 more. Here is a timeline of Mr. Amri’s life and whereabouts, drawn from government statements, interviews with officials and relatives, and news media accounts. | BERLIN — Anis Amri, a Tunisian man who turned 24 on Thursday, is the chief suspect in a Europe-wide investigation into Germany’s worst terrorist attack in decades. His fingerprints and identity document were found inside a tractor-trailer that plowed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday evening, killing 12 people and injuring about 50 more. Here is a timeline of Mr. Amri’s life and whereabouts, drawn from government statements, interviews with officials and relatives, and news media accounts. |
| Dec. 22, 1992: Mr. Amri is born in Oueslatia, a town in the midwest region of Tunisia, the youngest in a family of five sisters and four brothers. He drops out of secondary school at 14, and gains a reputation for drinking, partying and playing music, but is neither religious nor extremist, according to his siblings. | Dec. 22, 1992: Mr. Amri is born in Oueslatia, a town in the midwest region of Tunisia, the youngest in a family of five sisters and four brothers. He drops out of secondary school at 14, and gains a reputation for drinking, partying and playing music, but is neither religious nor extremist, according to his siblings. |
| March 2011: Mr. Amri leaves with three friends by boat for Italy a few months after the start of the political uprising that overthrows Tunisia’s longtime president. He is later convicted in absentia by a Tunisian court for stealing a car, and sentenced to five years in prison. | March 2011: Mr. Amri leaves with three friends by boat for Italy a few months after the start of the political uprising that overthrows Tunisia’s longtime president. He is later convicted in absentia by a Tunisian court for stealing a car, and sentenced to five years in prison. |
| Oct. 23, 2011: Mr. Amri is arrested in Belpasso, Italy — a small town near Catania on the east coast of Sicily — and is sentenced to four years in prison for causing a fire, damaging property and making threats, according to the Italian Justice Ministry. Local news outlets report at the time that three Tunisian asylum seekers, including a 19-year-old with the initials A.A., were arrested for setting fire to the center where they were staying, to protest poor living conditions and delays in the processing of their asylum claims. Over time, Mr. Amri spends time in six jails in Sicily. He is released, for good behavior, after serving about two years and nine months of the sentence, according to his sister, Najwa Amri. | Oct. 23, 2011: Mr. Amri is arrested in Belpasso, Italy — a small town near Catania on the east coast of Sicily — and is sentenced to four years in prison for causing a fire, damaging property and making threats, according to the Italian Justice Ministry. Local news outlets report at the time that three Tunisian asylum seekers, including a 19-year-old with the initials A.A., were arrested for setting fire to the center where they were staying, to protest poor living conditions and delays in the processing of their asylum claims. Over time, Mr. Amri spends time in six jails in Sicily. He is released, for good behavior, after serving about two years and nine months of the sentence, according to his sister, Najwa Amri. |
| July 2015: Mr. Amri enters Germany, apparently arriving in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg after a trip from Italy. According to Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, Mr. Amri is “highly mobile” over the next few months, passing through Freiburg, a city in the southwest; then Berlin; then North Rhine-Westphalia; and back to the German capital. | July 2015: Mr. Amri enters Germany, apparently arriving in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg after a trip from Italy. According to Ralf Jäger, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, Mr. Amri is “highly mobile” over the next few months, passing through Freiburg, a city in the southwest; then Berlin; then North Rhine-Westphalia; and back to the German capital. |
| February 2016: Mr. Amri settles in Berlin, according to Mr. Jäger. He finds work in construction and as a cook, according to his sisters. | February 2016: Mr. Amri settles in Berlin, according to Mr. Jäger. He finds work in construction and as a cook, according to his sisters. |
| March 14, 2016: Authorities in Berlin open a file on Mr. Amri. The Berlin state prosecutor said this was done because of “indications from the federal security authorities” that he was a potential security threat. Mr. Amri had evidently planned a robbery to get money to buy automatic weapons, “possibly in order to carry out an attack together with other perpetrators who had yet to be recruited,” the prosecutor said. The opening of the file leads to the start of undercover surveillance of Mr. Amri, including electronic monitoring of his movements. At the same time, possible targets of the robbery are warned. The surveillance leads the authorities to believe that Mr. Amri is involved in drug dealing in the city’s notorious Görlitzer Park. Prosecutors said that at one point, he got into a fight in a bar after what appeared to be a quarrel with another dealer. Mr. Amri is subjected to electronic monitoring in Berlin, because the authorities suspect that he might be planning a burglary or other crimes. The monitoring ends in September for reasons that are not clear. | March 14, 2016: Authorities in Berlin open a file on Mr. Amri. The Berlin state prosecutor said this was done because of “indications from the federal security authorities” that he was a potential security threat. Mr. Amri had evidently planned a robbery to get money to buy automatic weapons, “possibly in order to carry out an attack together with other perpetrators who had yet to be recruited,” the prosecutor said. The opening of the file leads to the start of undercover surveillance of Mr. Amri, including electronic monitoring of his movements. At the same time, possible targets of the robbery are warned. The surveillance leads the authorities to believe that Mr. Amri is involved in drug dealing in the city’s notorious Görlitzer Park. Prosecutors said that at one point, he got into a fight in a bar after what appeared to be a quarrel with another dealer. Mr. Amri is subjected to electronic monitoring in Berlin, because the authorities suspect that he might be planning a burglary or other crimes. The monitoring ends in September for reasons that are not clear. |
| April 2016: Mr. Amri reportedly makes a formal application for asylum in Germany, like hundreds of thousands of other migrants and refugees, many of whom — unlike him — had fled war in Syria. | April 2016: Mr. Amri reportedly makes a formal application for asylum in Germany, like hundreds of thousands of other migrants and refugees, many of whom — unlike him — had fled war in Syria. |
| June 2016: Mr. Amri is ordered deported. But a procedural snag appears: Because he does not have a valid passport, and because Tunisia does not initially acknowledge that he is a citizen, it is not yet possible to send him home, according to Mr. Jäger. | June 2016: Mr. Amri is ordered deported. But a procedural snag appears: Because he does not have a valid passport, and because Tunisia does not initially acknowledge that he is a citizen, it is not yet possible to send him home, according to Mr. Jäger. |
| July 30, 2016: Police in Friedrichshafen, a town on Lake Constance on the border with Switzerland, detain Mr. Amri after checking the documents of passengers on a bus heading for Zurich. Matthias Grewe, director of the local court in Ravensburg, Germany, said Mr. Amri was held because of the deportation order. Since it is a Saturday, and the relevant authorities may not be reachable, the court orders Mr. Amri held for 48 hours in the Ravensburg jail. | July 30, 2016: Police in Friedrichshafen, a town on Lake Constance on the border with Switzerland, detain Mr. Amri after checking the documents of passengers on a bus heading for Zurich. Matthias Grewe, director of the local court in Ravensburg, Germany, said Mr. Amri was held because of the deportation order. Since it is a Saturday, and the relevant authorities may not be reachable, the court orders Mr. Amri held for 48 hours in the Ravensburg jail. |
| Aug. 1, 2016: Mr. Amri is released shortly before the 48-hour detention order expires, according to the director of the jail, Thomas Mönig. The office responsible for dealing with foreigners, located about 315 miles away in Kleve in North-Rhine Westphalia, orders that Mr. Amri be released because it has no way to carry out the deportation. Mr. Grewe of the Ravensburg court said that if the deportation had been arranged, Mr. Amri could have been taken to an international airport in Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Munich to be flown to Tunisia. | Aug. 1, 2016: Mr. Amri is released shortly before the 48-hour detention order expires, according to the director of the jail, Thomas Mönig. The office responsible for dealing with foreigners, located about 315 miles away in Kleve in North-Rhine Westphalia, orders that Mr. Amri be released because it has no way to carry out the deportation. Mr. Grewe of the Ravensburg court said that if the deportation had been arranged, Mr. Amri could have been taken to an international airport in Frankfurt, Stuttgart or Munich to be flown to Tunisia. |
| Nov. 8, 2016: German authorities detain Abu Walaa, a Salafist preacher and alleged jihad recruiter, known as the “man without a face” because he never faces the camera when delivering video sermons. At least four other men are also detained, including a German-Serb identified as Boban S. German media reports say Mr. Amri was a guest several times at Boban S.’s home in Dortmund. City authorities in Dortmund declined to comment on Thursday, referring inquiries to the federal prosecutor’s office, which is now heading the overall investigation. | Nov. 8, 2016: German authorities detain Abu Walaa, a Salafist preacher and alleged jihad recruiter, known as the “man without a face” because he never faces the camera when delivering video sermons. At least four other men are also detained, including a German-Serb identified as Boban S. German media reports say Mr. Amri was a guest several times at Boban S.’s home in Dortmund. City authorities in Dortmund declined to comment on Thursday, referring inquiries to the federal prosecutor’s office, which is now heading the overall investigation. |
| Dec. 19, 2016: Shortly after 8 p.m., a truck apparently hijacked by Mr. Amri careens into the Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, a main public square in Berlin. The square is adjacent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of the city’s most notable sights, a ruin whose jagged spire was bombed in 1943, left unrepaired after the war, and now stands as a symbol of peace. Among the 12 people killed in the market are the Polish driver of the truck, whose body is found inside the cab; an Israeli visitor; and an Italian working in Berlin. | Dec. 19, 2016: Shortly after 8 p.m., a truck apparently hijacked by Mr. Amri careens into the Christmas market in Breitscheidplatz, a main public square in Berlin. The square is adjacent to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, one of the city’s most notable sights, a ruin whose jagged spire was bombed in 1943, left unrepaired after the war, and now stands as a symbol of peace. Among the 12 people killed in the market are the Polish driver of the truck, whose body is found inside the cab; an Israeli visitor; and an Italian working in Berlin. |
| Dec. 21, 2016: A warrant is issued for Mr. Amri’s arrest; a reward of 100,000 euros, or about $104,000, is offered for information leading to his capture. The Tunisian passport for Mr. Amri that the German authorities said was necessary for him to be deported finally arrives in Germany, months after it was requested. | Dec. 21, 2016: A warrant is issued for Mr. Amri’s arrest; a reward of 100,000 euros, or about $104,000, is offered for information leading to his capture. The Tunisian passport for Mr. Amri that the German authorities said was necessary for him to be deported finally arrives in Germany, months after it was requested. |
| Dec. 22, 2016: The authorities conduct raids at several homes associated with Mr. Amri, in the cities of Dortmund and Emmerich in North Rhine-Westphalia and in the Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg sections of Berlin, as well as a Muslim cultural center and prayer room in the Moabit district of Berlin. They also search a bus in Heilbronn, a city in southwestern Germany. The federal prosecutor’s office announces that Mr. Amri’s fingerprints were found on the driver’s door of the truck and on the B-pillar, one of the upright structural supports on the side of the cab, the federal prosecutor’s office announces. |