The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has requested a prison term of from four to twelve years against five suspected Tajik IS terrorists. This was announced by the Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court on Tuesday. The trial against the alleged terrorist cell of the “Islamic State” (IS) in Germany began there a year ago. The accused all lived in North Rhine-Westphalia – most recently in Essen, Kreuztal, Neuss, Selfkant and Siegen. They are between 25 and 34 years old.
In their indictment, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had accused the suspected Islamists, among other things, of planning an assassination attempt on an critic of Islam in Neuss. The murder of the Youtube channel administrator is said to have been narrowly prevented by the intervention of a special unit. However, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office had only raised the charge of preparing a terrorist attack against one of the defendants in the pleadings. According to the prosecution, a semi-automatic weapon with a removed serial number and a silencer was to be used for the murder. When the weapon was handed over, a special unit had intervened.
The Islam critic Amir A. (“Ex-Muslims Enlighten”) had reported on Youtube in April 2020 that another assassination attempt on him had failed. “These lunatics had even obtained weapons,” he said. “By a hair’s breadth they would have succeeded.”
The court had already sentenced another suspected IS terrorist in the group to seven years in prison in a separate trial. The terror cell is said to have formed in January 2019. The defence lawyers’ closing arguments are now scheduled in the trial. A final date for the sentencing has not yet been set.