BERLIN (AP) — Nine people from Central Asia were arrested Thursday in Germany and the Netherlands in connection with alleged plans for attacks in Germany consistent with the ideology of the Islamic State group, authorities said.
Seven men arrested in Germany are charged with founding a militant group and supporting ISIS, German federal prosecutors have said. All had known each other for a long time, had radical Islamic views and came to Germany more or less simultaneously from Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, they added.
A year ago, the suspects allegedly formed a group that aimed to carry out attacks in Germany. According to prosecutors, the group was in contact with an offshoot of ISIS, the Khorasan province of Islamic State.
Its members had checked possible targets in Germany and attempted to procure weapons, but ‘there was no concrete plan for an attack at the time of today’s arrest,’ prosecutors said in a statement. communicated. All but one of the men arrested in Germany had been collecting money for IS since April 2022 and transferring it to the group, they added.
In the Netherlands, prosecutors said a 29-year-old Tajik and his 31-year-old Kyrgyz wife, who had been living in the country since last year, were arrested on suspicion of having committed acts preparatory to attacks . The man is also suspected of belonging to IS.
Police suspect the man “has received orders to prepare a terrorist attack,” prosecutors said in a statement. He said the plans were serious enough for prosecutors to step in, although they were “not concrete yet”.
German prosecutors said the man arrested in the Netherlands belonged to the group formed by the other suspects.
The arrests in Germany were made at various locations in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which borders the Netherlands. German prosecutors identified the arrested men as Turkmen citizen Ata A., Kyrgyz national Abrorjon K. and Tajik citizens Mukhammadshujo A., Nuriddin K., Shamshud N., Said S. and Raboni Z.
Their full names have not been disclosed in accordance with German privacy rules.