Police arrest 'Isis terror coordinator' in Bavaria
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday ordered the arrest of a 31-year-old Syrian man suspected of overseeing Isis terror plans in Europe.
The arrest of Syrian national Zoher J. took place at his home in Lower Bavaria on Wednesday, with police also searching the suspect's apartment.
Prosecutors allege that Zoher J. was a member of Jabhat al-Nusra and Isis, both of which are terror organizations operating in Syria. He is also accused of breaching German laws on the possession of weapons of war.
The prosecutors stress that the arrest is not connected to the bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus on Tuesday evening.
Zoher J. is charged with having set up a fighting unit loyal to Jabhat al-Nusra - an al-Qaeda linked jihadi organization - at some point in 2011.
The young Syrian then led a fighting unit in the east Syrian city of Raqqa before it fell to Isis. Afterwards he joined the radical organization and became a member of their “secret service.”
By August 2015 he had arrived in Germany, prosecutors say, from where he repeatedly travelled to Greece to recruit members for terror cells in Greek refugee camps.
His other task was to coordinate the terror cells which had already been established in Europe in order to see their terror plots through to completion, prosecutors allege.
Several Syrian refugees have been arrested in recent months in connection to terror plots on German soil.
On Monday a 16-year-old Syrian refugee was convicted in Cologne of planning a bomb attack on behalf of Isis and sentenced to two years' juvenile detention.
In October last year, Jaber Albakr, a Syrian resident of Chemnitz, was arrested after allegedly planning to bomb a Berlin airport. He later committed suicide in police custody.
Germany has also been on high alert since a series of attacks last year claimed by Isis, the deadliest of which was a truck rampage through a Berlin Christmas market which killed 12 people in December.
With AFP
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The arrest of Syrian national Zoher J. took place at his home in Lower Bavaria on Wednesday, with police also searching the suspect's apartment.
Prosecutors allege that Zoher J. was a member of Jabhat al-Nusra and Isis, both of which are terror organizations operating in Syria. He is also accused of breaching German laws on the possession of weapons of war.
The prosecutors stress that the arrest is not connected to the bomb attack on the Borussia Dortmund team bus on Tuesday evening.
Zoher J. is charged with having set up a fighting unit loyal to Jabhat al-Nusra - an al-Qaeda linked jihadi organization - at some point in 2011.
The young Syrian then led a fighting unit in the east Syrian city of Raqqa before it fell to Isis. Afterwards he joined the radical organization and became a member of their “secret service.”
By August 2015 he had arrived in Germany, prosecutors say, from where he repeatedly travelled to Greece to recruit members for terror cells in Greek refugee camps.
His other task was to coordinate the terror cells which had already been established in Europe in order to see their terror plots through to completion, prosecutors allege.
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