‘ISIL’s chief recruiter’ goes on trial in Germany
A radical preacher has gone on trial in Germany, accused of recruiting foreign fighters who killed scores of people for ISIL in Iraq.
The Iraqi, 33, known by the nickname Abu Walaa, recruited at least seven people who travelled to the Middle East where they fought alongside ISIL militants, German prosecutors said.
They included two who died in suicide bomb attacks against the Iraqi army in 2015, which killed more than 150 soldiers.
Abu Walaa, described as ISIL’s de facto leader in Germany, is standing trial with four men accused of being members of his network. They held religious lessons using radical material, prosecutors said.
They said the men created a regional network in which Abu Walaa took the role as the representative of ISIL in Germany.
Those on trial with him at a court in the northern city of Celle are from Germany, Turkey, Cameroon and one with dual German and Serbian nationality.
They were detained during raids in Germany in November and have been held in custody. They have chosen not to testify during the trial.
“The federal prosecutor essentially accused the suspects of being members of, and supporting, a foreign terrorist organisation,” a spokeswoman for the higher regional court in Celle said.
Abu Walaa is known as the “faceless preacher” because of his habit of turning his back, or covering his face in propaganda videos. He did that to hide his face from photographers when he appeared in court this week.
He arrived in Germany in 2001 and set up base in the northern town of Hildesheim.
Named in court as Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah A, he became known as an extremist preacher at a mosque there, which has since been shut down.
Prosecutors believe that Abu Walaa had ties to ISIL and used the mosque to radicalise young people before sending them to Syria and Iraq to fight for the terrorist group.
He later gave sermons and is believed to have spoken at a Berlin mosque frequented by Anis Amri, a Tunisian who drove a truck through a crowded Christmas market in the city last year, killing 12 people and injuring more than 50.
Amri was seen by German intelligence visiting Hildesheim 10 months before the attack, prompting speculation that he was part of Abu Walaa’s network.
Amri acted as an intermediary for Abu Walaa, passing on messages from the preacher to his followers, Der Spiegel reported. He was shot dead days later by police in Italy.
The network also included a man from Duisburg who was said to be in contact with people who bombed a Sikh temple in Essen.
The case against the five men, based in part on evidence of recruits who turned against the terrorist organisation, is expected to last into next year.
Michael Murat Sertoez, a lawyer for one of the five suspects, said: “There will be a lot of protected witnesses who will be testifying and that is not acceptable for us.”