Germany Arrests Two Iraqis on Suspicion of Belonging to the Terrorist Organization “ISIS”
German authorities have arrested two Iraqi nationals suspected of belonging to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS. The men were detained in Stormarn, Schleswig-Holstein, near Hamburg, on July 8. ([Presseportal][1])
According to Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Generalbundesanwalt), the two suspects allegedly joined IS in Iraq by June 2014 at the latest. Investigators accuse both men of participating in combat operations for the terrorist organization.
One of the suspects, identified as Khaled Al H., is accused of serving with the IS Sharia police and later becoming a commander of an IS combat unit. Prosecutors allege that he took part in fighting for the group until 2017.
The second suspect, Mahmoud A., is also accused of participating in IS fighting. Prosecutors say he and other IS members seized an Iraqi state-owned oil refinery in Baiji, northern Iraq. He is consequently suspected of committing a war crime against property.
Authorities also allege that Khaled Al H. continued supporting IS after arriving in Germany. According to prosecutors, he repeatedly published IS propaganda in Germany from July 2022 onward.
The arrests were carried out by officers from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) under arrest warrants issued by an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof). Both suspects were brought before the judge and ordered to remain in pre-trial detention.
The latest arrests are part of a wider effort by German authorities to investigate suspected former IS members living in the country. German investigators have increasingly used documents recovered from inside the former terrorist organization to identify people allegedly involved with IS years ago.