Many arrested in raids targeting ISIS financing networks in Germany

Marco Krefting and Anne-Béatrice Clasmann, dpa

BERLIN – Seven suspected supporters of the Islamic State, ISIS terrorist organization have been arrested across several German federal states, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Wednesday morning.

The investigation concerns a financing network of Islamic State, the prosecutor said. The news had previously been reported by the local Berlin newspaper BZ and the mass-circulation Bild.
Four of the arrests were made in North Rhine-Westphalia, and one each in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bremen, the prosecutor said.

The men and women – mostly of German nationality – are accused by the country’s supreme prosecuting authority of supporting a terrorist organization.

Searches were carried out on Wednesday morning in the states of Berlin, Bavaria, Bremen, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Thuringia, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, the Karlsruhe-based prosecutor announced. The background to the raid is fundraising in favour of suspected female supporters of Islamic State, dpa has learned.

Social media campaigns with titles like “Your sister in the camp” have been running for several years. They aim to financially support Islamic State women who have been living with their children in Syria since the military defeat of the terrorist militia, especially in the al-Hol camp controlled by Kurdish groups.

Time and again, there have been reports that women, children and young people who to this day still feel affiliated with Islamic State have been smuggled out of the camp in exchange for large sums of money.

Of the several dozen Islamic State women who have returned to Germany in recent years, quite a few were detained after their arrival and brought before the courts.
Some of them came to Germany from Syria with their children, others were deported or returned on their own.

For years, Islamic State controlled large areas in the war-torn country of Syria and neighbouring Iraq. In June 2014, it proclaimed a so-called caliphate and claimed leadership in the so-called global jihad.

According to the Germany’s domestic intelligence service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the peak phase ended in 2016, and the extremists have since lost the territory they held. However, Islamic State cells are still active in both countries.

Since the beginning of 2014, acts committed by members or supporters of Islamic State who are German citizens, reside in Germany or are active in the country can be prosecuted under the criminal code.

The German Interior Ministry also issued a ban on Islamic State activities in Germany on September 12, 2014. This includes any participation in social media and demonstrations in favour of Islamic State, any kind of support activities such as the solicitation of money and material, as well as the recruitment of fighters. These acts are punishable by law.