BERLIN: A former imam at a radical mosque in Germany was convicted Wednesday of being a member of Daesh and sentenced to 10 1/2 years in prison.
The state court in Celle in northern Germany convicted Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A., who goes by the alias Abu Walaa, of membership in and support for a terrorist organization, the dpa news agency reported.
The court found that Abu Walaa and his network radicalized young people in northern and western Germany and sent them to areas controlled by Daesh. Three co-defendants were given prison sentences of up to eight years.
The verdict against the 37-year-old Iraqi citizen ended a trial that began in September 2017.
Abu Walaa was the imam at a prominent radical mosque in the northern city of Hildesheim and also organized “Islam seminars” at mosques elsewhere in Germany.
German authorities banned the organization that ran the mosque in March 2017.
German court convicts radical imam of membership in Daesh
https://arab.news/bjtuk
German court convicts radical imam of membership in Daesh
- Three co-defendants were given prison sentences of up to eight years
- German authorities banned the organization that ran the mosque in March 2017
Drone strike kills 10, including 7 children, in Sudan’s El-Obeid: medical source
- An eyewitness said the strike hit a house in the center of the army-controlled capital of North Kordofan
PORT SUDAN, Sudan: A drone strike on the Sudanese city of El-Obeid killed 10 people including seven children on Monday, a medical source told AFP.
An eyewitness said the strike hit a house in the center of the army-controlled capital of North Kordofan, which the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have sought to encircle for months.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war between the army and the RSF, with some of the worst violence currently unfolding in Sudan’s strategic southern Kordofan region.
El-Obeid, the region’s main city, lies on a key crossroads connecting the capital Khartoum with the vast western Darfur region — where the army lost its last major position in October.
Following its victory in Darfur, the RSF has pushed through Kordofan, seeking to recapture Sudan’s central corridor and tightening its siege with its local allies around several army-held cities.
Hundreds of thousands face mass starvation across the region.
Last year, the army broke a paramilitary siege on El-Obeid, which the RSF has sought to encircle since.
Drone strikes on Sunday caused a power outage in the city but left no reports of casualties.
Last week, a coalition of armed groups allied with the army said they had retaken several towns south of El-Obeid, which according to a military source could “open up the road between El-Obeid and Dilling” — one of South Kordofan’s besieged cities.
Since it began, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million people to flee internally and across borders.
It has also created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises, and been described as a “war of atrocities” by the United Nations.
