Trial begins of German accused of supporting Islamic terrorists
● Hardline Muslim preacher attempted to enforce Sharia law
German man charged with supporting an Islamist militant group in Syria stayed silent on the first day of his high-security trial in Duesseldorf yesterday though his lawyer told the court that the prosecution was “flying blind” and its witnesses were unfit.
The trial was broken off soon after the charges against the accused were read out, with proceedings postponed until next week.
Judges have scheduled 30 trial days, with the entire trial to run until 18 January, 2017.
Prosecutors said Sven Lau, 35, had served as an “extended arm” of the Jaish al-muhajiing reen wal-ansar (Jamwa), an insurgent group made up of around 1,500 Chechen, Uzbek and Tajik fighters, which last year pledged allegiance to the Nusra Front, then an al-qaeda affiliate.
Lau, who was born a catholic, supported the Mujajireen Brigades, which is listed as a terrorist organisation in Germany, four times in 2013 by either collecting funds or recruiting fighters for the group, prosecutors say. German intelligence says Lau also visited Syria in 2013, based on videos posted online.
Complaints against Lau go back to 2013, when the Islamist preacher ferried two Salafists from Germany to join the Jamwa in Syria. One of these men was an Islamist who had been sentenced to four and a half years in prison.
Mutlu Guenal, Lau’s lawyer, told the court in Duesseldorf yesterday that the trial was “flying blind judicially,” accusa the prosecution of relying on people who had either lied in testimony or who, he said, were mentally unfit as witnesses. The court will also debate on whether Lau himself can be branded a terrorist.
Lau, a hardline Muslim preacher from Germany’s western state of North-rhine Westphalia, has been in prescene, trial custody for nine months and faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
A total of 820 Islamists are believed to have departed Germany to war zones in Syria and Iraq, up from 780 at the end of last year. About one third are estimated to have returned.
Widely regarded as a leading figure in the German Salafist Lau is reported to have initiated the “Sharia police” in Wuppertal in Germany’s western industrial Ruhr region. Together with his accomplices, all aged between 24 and 35, he patrolled the streets in September 2014 in an attempt to enforce a strict interpretation of Islam on the local population.
Wearing orange vests, emblazoned with the words “Shariah police,” the defendants allegedly demanded people at nightclubs stop drinking alcohol and listening to music. The bearded fundamentalists were also observed calling for an end to gambling as they carried signs in English, declaring a “Sharia Controlled Zone.”
Lau also faces a separate trial for allegedly attempting to enforce Sharia Law.
Prosecutors have said that this was an illegal gathering as he and the eight others were trying to recruit others to join them.