2023-07-06 09:20:40
BERLIN (AP) — Nine people from Central Asia were arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on Thursday in connection with alleged plans to carry out attacks in Germany in line with the ideology of the extremist group Islamic State, authorities said.
The seven men detained in Germany are accused of founding a “domestic terrorist group” and supporting ISIS, the acronym for the radical militia in English, according to the German federal prosecutor’s office. They had all known each other for a long time, held radical Islamic views and had arrived in the country more or less simultaneously from Ukraine following the start of the Russian invasion, he added.
The suspects would have formed a group a year ago with the aim of attacking Germany. According to prosecutors, they were in contact with the Afghan branch of ISIS, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province.
Its members had investigated possible targets in the country and tried to obtain weapons, but “there was no concrete plan for an attack at the time of today’s arrest,” the prosecution added in a statement. All but one of those arrested in Germany had been collecting money for Islamic State since April 2022 and transferring it to the group, the note added.
In the Netherlands, the prosecution explained that a 29-year-old Tajik man and his 31-year-old Kyrgyz wife, who had been in the country since last year, were arrested for allegedly “committing preparations for terrorist offences.” The man is also suspected of belonging to ISIS.
Police suspect that the man “was ordered to prepare a terrorist attack,” the prosecution said in a statement, noting that the plans were serious enough to motivate intervention, although “they were not yet concrete.”
According to the German prosecutor’s office, the detainee in the Netherlands belonged to the group formed by the other suspects.
The arrests on German soil were made at various points in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands.
The German prosecutor’s office identified those arrested as Ata A., from Turkmenistan; Abrorjon K., from Kyrgyzstan, and Mukhammadshujo A., Nuriddin K., Shamshud N., Said S., and Raboni Z, from Tajikistan. In compliance with German privacy laws, his full name was not disclosed.
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