|
Germany: Kurdish Islamists refuse to
testify in court
28.6.2006
|
|
|
|
We
reported on November 16 2005 that three Iraqi Kurds,
suspected members of Ansar al-Islam were formally
charged with plotting to assassinate former Iraqi
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, during his state visit
to Germany in 2004.
The three men were arrested on December 3, 2004
shortly after the arrival of Allawi. Two days of his
planned tour of Germany were cancelled as a result
of suspicions that a plot was being hatched. A
planned welcoming ceremony in the chancellery
courtyard and a meeting of Allawi with German
business leaders had been cancelled.
Nine business locations and apartments in Berlin,
Stuttgat and Augsburg were raided, and the three men
were arrested in these raids. Ansar al-Islam members
had been under constant surveillance since December
2003 and information from surveillance led to the
arrests and curtailment of certain of Allawi's
engagements. |
Mullah Krekar, the founder of radical and Terrorist
Islamist group Ansar al-Islam
Photo: AP |
The three were charged on Wednesday 16 November
2005. German news sources could not legally give the
names of those charged. The charges maintain that
they were members of a foreign terrorist
organisation, were preparing to carry out terrorist
attacks, and violations of German law, through
sending money to extremist groups.
The ringleader of the group, Ata R from Stuttgart,
was said by prosecutors to have assisted in the
recruitment of suicide bombers bound for Iraq, and
had gathered funds for Al-Islam.
The three Iraqi Kurds were placed on trial in
Stuttgart on Tuesday, June 20. Expatica stated that
prosecutors confirmed that the three men had had
their telephone conversations monitored. They were
named in a Yahoo report, which we referred to here,
on June 20.
The ringleader's name is Ata Abdoulaziz Rashid, aged
32, And his alleged co-conspirators are 24-year old
Mazen Ali Hussein and 31-year old Rafik Mohamad
Yousef. If found guilty of the charges laid against
them, they could serve a maximum of ten years' jail.
On the first day of their trial, the three were
taciturn, apart from a statement made by Rafik
Mohamad Yousef, that "there are 50 mistakes in the
indictment, and I can prove it." The procedures were
put on hold as defense attorneys asked for the full
indictments to be translated into Arabic, as well as
Kurdish, as two of the defendants claimed to speak
Arabic better than Kurdish.
However, according to the Washington Post today, the
three men have since refused to testify in the court
case.
According to the charge-sheet, Ata Abdoulaziz Rashid
had collected money on a monthly basis for Ansar
al-Islam between 2003 and 2004. This money was then
transferred to Iraq. Police had monitored 11 of
these transfers, which involved amounts up to
$15,000.
Ansar al-Islam (full title Ansar al-Islam fi
Kurdistan or "Supporters of Islam in Kurdistan") had
been formed in December 2001 by the notorious Mullah
Krekar, and was responsible for burning down beauty
salons and a girls' school, and killing women in the
streets of Kurdish communities if they refused to
wear the burka. The group is based in the town of
Biyarah and its environs, close to the Iranian
border.
It has also mounted several suicide attacks,
including one upon a US Department of Defense office
in Abril in September 2003, killing 3. On February
1, 2004, Ansar al-Islam attacked two Kurdish party
offices, killing 109 people and injuring 200.
Mullah Krekar is currently in Norway, where he has
officially lived as a refugee since 1991. He is
currently awaiting deportation from Norway to Iraq.
AP | westernresistance com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
®