Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: The Associated Press
Byline:
Date: 10 October 2006
BERLIN_An Iraqi man suspected of spreading messages by al-Qaida leaders on
the Internet in the past year was arrested Tuesday in Germany, prosecutors
said.
The 36-year-old, who was identified only as Ibrahim R., was arrested near
the western city of Osnabrueck, and his apartment was searched, the
prosecutors said.
He was accused of spreading audio and video messages by leaders of al-Qaida
and al-Qaida in Iraq on the Internet from his home "in several cases since
Sept. 24, 2005," _ and "in doing so of having supported these groups in
their terrorist activities and aims."
The prosecutors said the messages were from Osama bin Laden, his deputy
Ayman al-Zawahri and former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in June.
Prosecutors did not elaborate on the man's alleged activities or say how he
got the messages.
It was unclear whether the man was suspected of posting the messages on the
Web himself or of having circulated messages already online, and there also
was no word on whether he was believed to have acted alone.
Prosecutors gave no details of the contents of the messages.
The top security official in Lower Saxony state, Uwe Schuenemann, said the
man had been under observation for a year because he had been accused of
involvement in another crime, of which he gave no details.
The Iraqi had applied for a residence permit, but it had not yet been
approved, Schuenemann said.
The man was to be brought before a federal judge Wednesday for a decision on
whether he could be held pending possible charges of supporting a terrorist
organization _ a charge that falls short of membership in a terrorist group.
Germany introduced legislation designed to prosecute supporters of foreign
terrorist groups on its soil after it emerged that three of the Sept. 11,
2001, hijackers had lived and studied in Hamburg.
Byline:
Date: 10 October 2006
BERLIN_An Iraqi man suspected of spreading messages by al-Qaida leaders on
the Internet in the past year was arrested Tuesday in Germany, prosecutors
said.
The 36-year-old, who was identified only as Ibrahim R., was arrested near
the western city of Osnabrueck, and his apartment was searched, the
prosecutors said.
He was accused of spreading audio and video messages by leaders of al-Qaida
and al-Qaida in Iraq on the Internet from his home "in several cases since
Sept. 24, 2005," _ and "in doing so of having supported these groups in
their terrorist activities and aims."
The prosecutors said the messages were from Osama bin Laden, his deputy
Ayman al-Zawahri and former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
who was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in June.
Prosecutors did not elaborate on the man's alleged activities or say how he
got the messages.
It was unclear whether the man was suspected of posting the messages on the
Web himself or of having circulated messages already online, and there also
was no word on whether he was believed to have acted alone.
Prosecutors gave no details of the contents of the messages.
The top security official in Lower Saxony state, Uwe Schuenemann, said the
man had been under observation for a year because he had been accused of
involvement in another crime, of which he gave no details.
The Iraqi had applied for a residence permit, but it had not yet been
approved, Schuenemann said.
The man was to be brought before a federal judge Wednesday for a decision on
whether he could be held pending possible charges of supporting a terrorist
organization _ a charge that falls short of membership in a terrorist group.
Germany introduced legislation designed to prosecute supporters of foreign
terrorist groups on its soil after it emerged that three of the Sept. 11,
2001, hijackers had lived and studied in Hamburg.