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MUNICH - An Iraqi Kurd denied on Tuesday at the
start of a major terrorism trial in Germany that he
was a member of the feared Islamist group Ansar
al-Islam, but conceded he was a people smuggler.
Lokman M., 31, is alleged to have helped radical
Kurdish Muslims travel to Iraq to mount terror
attacks on behalf of Ansar al-Islam as well as
smuggling wounded fighters into Europe for medical
care.
Prosecutors said he was valued by Ansar al-Islam
because he was a member of a professional group of
human traffickers.
Conceding that he moved people in defiance of
migration rules, M. told the Bavarian State Superior
Court: "I helped people who had suffered under the
old regime of
Saddam Hussein. I did not work for Ansar al-Islam."
The trial resumed under tight security six weeks
after it had adjourned because lawyers needed more
time to read files.
Federal prosecutors claimed he was a local
fundraiser and head of Ansar al-Islam's Munich cell.
But M. told the court he had been a member of the
Islamic Movement of Kurdistan and had always
rejected bids by rival groups to recruit him.
He said he had sent small amounts of money illegally
to Iraq. They had been intended to help people who
had been impoverished by United Nations sanctions
against Iraq, adding, "There was no way at that time
to transfer the aid to my people officially."
Ansar al-Islam is the most feared Islamist group in
northern Iraq. Norway plans to deport Mullah Krekar,
believed to be its main spiritual leader, back to
Iraq next year. The United States regards Ansar
al-Islam as an ally to the al-Qaeda terrorist
network.
Prosecutor Ulrich Boeter told the court
investigations showed M. had been "an active helper"
to the terrorist network.
Among his 20 clients had been a seriously injured
Ansar ordnance expert who had both hands blown off
while handling a landmine and was smuggled into
Britain for medical treatment.
M. had personally escorted the man after arrival in
Italy in full knowledge of his importance to the
Islamists, according to the prosecution.
The indictment says that by November 2002 at the
latest M. had become a fully fledged member of
Ansar's international network, which recruited
Islamists to go to Iraq and fight. The Munich cell
also sent the terrorists funding and technical
equipment.
M. is the first person to be put on trial under
amended German legislation that makes it a crime to
join a foreign terror group. Previously it was only
a crime to be in a German-based terrorist cell.
The trial had to be adjourned within an hour of
starting on 19 April with both sides saying they had
not been shown evidence gathered in a separate
investigation of the suspect by Stuttgart
prosecutors till the last minute and needed more
time to study the documents.
Federal prosecutors have since taken over the case
to ensure there is no more muddle among state-level
authorities.
The principal charge is that M. is a member of an
international terror group. The indictment states he
has provided financial support from Germany for
Ansar al-Islam as well as logistical work including
six instances of people-smuggling on behalf of the
terrorists.
Germany passed a new law after the 11 September 2001
terror attacks under which membership in a foreign
terrorist group is a punishable act.
The Munich court has scheduled 30 hearing days for
the case up to 12 August and is expected to hear 40
witnesses including six persons in Italian and
Swedish jails who are to testify by live video hook-
up.
The main prosecution witness has disappeared,
presiding judge Bernd von Heintschel-Heinegg told
the court. A subpoena sent to him had come back
marked 'address unknown'.
Lawyers Nicole Hinz and Rolf Grabow representing M.
said the court must decide if paramilitary
activities in the course of a war within a country
should be considered 'terrorism'.
"The defence asks the court and the federal
prosecutors to consider that this prosecution is on
the borderline between traditional criminal law and
pure foreign policy", they said in submissions.
The case against M. was also partly based on
intelligence documents where sources could not be
checked.
"In the war of the United States and its allies
against the Saddam Hussein regime, they also quoted
'sources' and alleged Iraq had nuclear weapons or
nuclear-capable material," they said. "Today we know
that this was to be doubted."
DPA
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