TerrorismRicin attack plotters in Germany tested biological weapon on a hamster

German prosecutors have arrested the wife of a Tunisian man who was detained last month for plotting a biological attack. The couple bought a hamster to test a chemical substance before they were going to use it in a planned terrorist attack.

German federal prosecutors said the 43-year-old German woman, named only as Yasmin H, was charged with helping to produce biological weapons and prepare an act of violence. Her husband, Sief Allah H., was arrested on 12 June for “planning a serious act of violent subversion.”

He bought large quantities of castor seeds, and the couple was working on producing ricin toxin from the seeds.

NZHerald reports that the prosecutors say Yasmin H, who convert to Islam, allowed her husband to use her online accounts to order ingredients to make ricin. The couple then bought a hamster to test the effectiveness of the toxin.

On Tuesday, prosecutors said Yasmin H. had helped her husband travel to Poland in late 2017 to buy explosive materials.

Sief Allah H. followed instructions on making a ricin bomb disseminated online by ISIS. Prosecutors said that the couple started buying the equipment and ingredients to make ricin in mid-May, including thousands of “castor seeds and an electric coffee grinder,” their bioweapon attack plans were still in early stages.

Federal prosecutors say that about 3,150 castor bean seeds, more than three times the number initially suspected, and 84.3 milligrams of ricin were found in the suspect’s apartment.

Ricin is 6,000 times more potent than cyanide and is lethal in minute doses if swallowed, inhaled, or injected. It has no known antidote.