German authorities arrest citizen planned to join ISIS in Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – In a statement released Tuesday, Germany’s federal prosecutor announced arresting a German man, identified only as Aleem N, accused of supporting the Islamic State Organization (ISIS).
The suspect, who was arrested on Monday, was “a long-time follower of radical jihadist and Islamic ideas,” as in September 2020 he traveled to Syria to join the terrorist organization but he failed and returned to Germany in October of the same year, the statement said.
Since April 2021, N. had conducted extensive ISIS propaganda activities. His main task was to translate official ISIS texts, videos or audio messages from Arabic into German and spread them on various Telegram channels in the German-speaking countries.
In addition, N. likely went through a phone interview with ISIS officials in late fall 2021, the statement read. The goal of the interview was to verify the reliability of the accused after he was planning once again to go to active ISIS areas. However, he failed again in January 2022, the prosecutor said without providing further details.
Capturing Aleem N. was part of a joint German-Swiss operation to arrest four people accused of belonging to or supporting ISIS, officials said Tuesday.
The other three were detained in Switzerland in the cantons of Zurich, St. Gallen and Lucerne. However, unlike Aleem N. no further details have been released about them.