Five Daesh suspects arrested in Germany

BERLIN: German authorities on Tuesday arrested five men who allegedly aided the Daesh terrorist group in Germany by recruiting members and providing financial and logistical help.
The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the men were arrested on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization. The arrests were made in a series of raids in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas, called the arrests “an important blow to the extremist scene in Germany.”
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it was critical to prevent people from becoming “so radicalized that they are in danger of becoming terrorists.” “We don’t want terrorism to take place in Germany,” he said. “We don’t want terrorism to be exported from Germany.”
One of the raids was in the Lower Saxony city of Hildesheim.
The prosecutor’s office, which handles all terrorism cases, said the suspects weren’t known to have links to Daesh suspect Jaber Albakr, who killed himself in prison in October two days after being arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack a Berlin airport with homemade explosives.
The five men arrested Tuesday are suspected of recruiting young Muslims in Germany, and raising funds to send them to Syria to join Daesh, prosecutors said. They’re also accused of providing logistical support for the trips.
One of the suspects, a 32-year-old Iraqi citizen identified as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A., who also goes by the alias of Abu Walaa, is accused of being the ringleader of the group. He openly supported the terror group, attended several extremist events as a speaker and approved the departure of those willing to go to Syria, prosecutors said.
His last name wasn’t provided in line with German privacy laws.
Two other suspects, identified as 50-year-old Turkish citizen Hasan C. and 36-year-old German-Serbian citizen Boban S., were allegedly in charge of teaching radical content to recruits.
A 27-year-old German citizen, Mahmoud O., and a 26-year-old from Cameroon, identified as Ahmed F.Y., are suspected of helping to organize the recruits’ departure to Syria.
“The network verifiably trafficked one young man and his family to the ‘IS’ in Syria,” the statement says.