March 27, 2013

(JTA) — A Polish court has ordered a psychiatric examination of a man accused of planning to blow up the country’s parliament building because of “xenophobic, anti-Semitic ideas.”

On a request from prosecutors, a court in the southern city of Krakow on Tuesday ordered four weeks of observation at a mental hospital for the man, identified only as Brunon K, who was arrested in November, the TVN 24 television network reported. The observation may be extended by another four weeks. 

After the defendant’s arrest in November, prosecutors said the defendant was motivated by “nationalistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideas.”

Investigators said the 45-year-old chemist, employed at the University of Agriculture in Krakow, planned to put four tons of explosives in a car and detonate them outside the Parliament building while President Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Cabinet ministers and lawmakers were inside.

In searches conducted in connection with the defendant’s arrest in November, Polish police found explosives, detonators, remote controls, several firearms and ammunition, body armor, helmets, camouflage uniforms, fake license plates and books, the report said.

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