2024-08-06 08:06:43
Islamist terror
IS terror plans: silence and denial in court
Updated on 30.07.2024Reading time: 3 min.
From beheading to suitcase bombs: Seven suspected terrorists of the Islamic State are on trial in Düsseldorf. They are said to have targeted Jews and moderate Muslims.
With knives, suitcase bombs and automatic firearms: Seven suspected IS terrorists are said to have made plans against Jews and moderate Muslims in Germany. The trial against the defendants has begun at the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court.
The men took advantage of Russia’s attack on Ukraine to coordinate their entry into Germany from Central Asia via Ukraine and Poland in spring 2022, reported a representative of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. Once in Germany, they founded an Islamic State terrorist cell and collected money for imprisoned IS terrorists in Kurdish camps.
For months they were observed “with extensive covert measures” as they considered various types of attacks, but without starting to plan any concrete acts. Lack of money played a role in this.
A mosque of liberal Muslims in Berlin-Moabit and people of the Jewish faith were the targets of the defendants. “They pursued the goal of carrying out high-profile attacks in Europe,” said senior public prosecutor Simon Henrichs. He did not confirm that the first tip-off about the group came from a Dutch secret service.
So far, the men, aged between 21 and 47, have remained silent about the allegations, said a court spokesman. Five of them are Tajiks, one is Kyrgyz and one is Turkmen. The defense attorney for the oldest defendant denied the allegations at the start of the trial and stated that her client was neither a Salafist nor a terrorist.
In Germany, a 28-year-old Turkmen, who most recently lived in Ennepetal, took on a leadership role, it was said when the charges were read out. The group is said to have maintained contact with leading members of the IS offshoot Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISPK) in Turkey. “Do sports and be ready,” was the instruction.
One of the accused even flew to Tehran with an IS explosives expert and returned alone. Investigators have registered 58 personal meetings of the group, for example in Düsseldorf, Münster, Warendorf and Herne.
A video showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley and propaganda from the IS media office were intended to keep the group ideologically together. Voice messages sang praises to IS.
In July 2022, there was talk of an attack on the liberal mosque in Berlin-Moabit. Because the Islamic faith is practiced there in a moderate form, the mosque has become an object of hatred for Islamists as a “place of devil worship”.
Copies of a blank oath of loyalty to the IS caliph were ready for propaganda after an attack. Only the names had to be entered, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
In a hardware store, one of the men inspected chemicals for pool cleaning and pest control, apparently with an eye on whether they were suitable for use in an attack. Then a car was considered as the murder weapon. Another time, small automatic firearms were to be procured.
One of the men said that he finally wanted to carry out an attack. When an argument broke out in the group, a Sharia court was called, according to representatives of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office. However, the sentence of 80 lashes was not carried out – an apology put an end to the matter.
The men had placed plastic bottles filled with liquid in a suitcase, presumably to determine the maximum amount of liquid explosives in a suitcase bomb. In Cologne-Deutz, where the men had visited the fair as a possible target for an attack, one of them had made the Tauhid gesture, the raised index finger. “Stop that,” he was immediately reprimanded because he had violated the instruction to behave inconspicuously.
The men were offered a Stinger missile and a pistol. They probably didn’t take the offer because they were short of money and instead turned to Molotov cocktails. Finally, at a meeting in Belgium, the statement was made that the unbelievers’ heads should be cut off with a knife. The group continued to look for someone to finance the attacks.
Nevertheless, thousands of euros were collected and transferred for IS prisoners in camps such as Al-Hol. Six of the seven defendants are therefore accused of supporting IS.
The seven were arrested in various locations in North Rhine-Westphalia a good year ago and have been in custody since then. Over 200 police officers were involved in the arrest, including the GSG 9 special unit and the federal air squadron. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) and NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) have commented on the arrest. The suspected head of the terror cell is behind bars in the Netherlands and is being prosecuted separately there.
The court had scheduled 45 days of hearings for the trial until mid-January 2025, but the dates now extend into the second half of February.