Confidential data reveals a refugee's membership in ISIS
A man is being tried in the city of Korneuburg on charges of belonging to the "Islamic State" (ISIS) after being accused of taking an oath of loyalty to the terrorist organization and participating as a fighter during his time in Iraq. The suspect, a 46-year-old mathematics teacher from Mosul, denies the charges against him, despite digital evidence proving his involvement, according to authorities.
Investigations indicate that the man joined ISIS in Iraq in 2015 and took the organization's known oath. The prosecution states that he subsequently worked as a fighter or soldier and received wages for that. His name and image were revealed in organizational documents seized by U.S. forces during a military operation, where laptops and hard drives containing important information were confiscated.
In front of the court, the defendant repeatedly denied his affiliation with the terrorist organization, asserting that two of his brothers were wanted members of ISIS, and that one of them exploited his personal data. He claimed that it is easy to include his name in those lists, and that his picture could have been taken from anywhere. He also considered the seized lists to be fake.
But the judge was not convinced by his explanations, pointing out that the documents had been verified by the FBI and the Direktion Staatsschutz und Nachrichtendienst (DSN), both of which consider them authentic and internationally recognized. The prosecutor added that the accused would be the first of his kind if it is proven that his name was falsely included.
The man left Iraq in 2017, passing through Turkey and then Greece where he obtained subsidiary protection, before moving to Germany and residing there for five years, despite five rejected asylum applications he submitted there. Later, he entered Austria via the Netherlands and was arrested in November 2024 inside a refugee camp. The Iraqi authorities had issued an arrest warrant against him since 2020 on charges of belonging to ISIS.