A 21-year-old refugee from Syria has been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of involvement in the fight for an Islamist terrorist militia. According to a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office, he is in custody on remand.
The prosecutor general’s office posted on Twitter that it was “suspected of membership in the Islamic terrorist organisation ‘Ahrar al-Sham’ and of taking part in fighting in Syria”.
The man is said to have spent several months in Syria as a youth in the summer of 2013 fighting against Russian troops, among others. According to the allegations, he fired a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the course of this fight. In this context, the public prosecutor’s office announced that he was possibly involved in murder, manslaughter and war crimes. According to his own statements, he was 15 years old at the time. The date of birth given in Germany was 1.1.1999. It is still unclear how old the man actually is.
He is actually living in a refugee accommodation in the northwest of Brandenburg, but he also lives in Berlin, where he collects money from the social welfare office, they said. During an appointment there in October, he is said to have stated that he would prefer to go back to Syria to continue fighting for the Islamists. Thereupon, the police were informed and corresponding investigations were initiated.
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