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November 30, 2005
Germany: 700 Police Search Homes In Islamist Raids
According to Ireland's Evening Echo, there have been raids today upon homes and public buildings, including mosques, by more than 700 police.
The raids came as a result of an investigation of 20 suspects who are based in Ulm, and who are said by Munich prosecutors to have a criminal operation of raising money through smuggling, assisting illegal immigration and document forgery to "pursue their ideological goals".
A statement by the prosecutors, who were based in Ulm, said "In addition, they are accused of spreading their beliefs in racial hatred and recruiting people for jihad."
Fifty searches were carried out on mosques call-centers and apartments in the states of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, North Rhine Westphalia, Hessen and Berlin, with raids being concentrated in the cities of Ulm, Freiburg, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Bonn.
According to the Evening Echo, police have announced that "many" arrests have been made, but gave no figure.
Eight days ago n November 23, there were searches upon houses and a mosque in the state of Bavaria, in the towns of Ingolstadt and Schwabach. These searches were in connection with the Caliphate State or Kalifastaat, whose founder "The Caliph of Cologne", Metin Kaplan today had his life sentence verdict on terrorism charges declared invalid. He has been told by the Supreme Court of Appeals that he will be retried.
On December 11, 2003, before Kaplan was deported to Germany, there was a larger operation against his followers, in which 5,500 security officers swooped on addresses of 1,000 supporters of the Caliphate State, which had been declared illegal in 1991. The flat of the "Caliph" himself was raided. The raids happened in 13 out of Germany's 16 states. According to CNN:
The swoop focused on the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttemberg, where some 660 premises were raided. The regional crime squad in North Rhine-Westphalia reported the move had been planned for a year and a half.Is there a connection between what happened in Turkey today and the raid? Are today's raids connected to the ones eight days ago, against the Caliphate State?Federal prosecutor Kay Nehm also said he was investigating four members of the Kalifatstaat on suspicion of planning attacks and creating a terrorist organization.
Nehm also ordered a search of the premises of the group's leader, Metin Kaplan, known as the "Caliph of Cologne," on the grounds he was continuing to direct the Kalifatstaat.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 30, 2005 11:40 PM
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