BERLIN — The German authorities have obtained a trove of documents listing foreigners who have traveled to Syria to fight for the Islamic State, which they hope will help them prosecute fighters who return home and prevent other Germans from joining the organization.
The Interior Ministry confirmed on Thursday that officials believed that the documents, which were reported by the news media earlier this week, were authentic, but they declined to give any details about the origins of the papers or the identities of the people named.
It was also not immediately clear whether the German authorities were sharing the information with the intelligence agencies of their allies, including the United States and Britain.
The news was reported on Monday by a team of investigative reporters from the Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung and the public broadcasters NDR and WDR, but the story received widespread attention only when Sky News, a British broadcaster, said Thursday it had also obtained similar documents. Sky News said its trove included the names of 22,000 foreigners said to have crossed into Syria from Turkey.
German officials declined to give details about the contents of the documents in their possession, but Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that they included responses to a list of 23 questions, as well as first and last names, noms de guerre and past addresses of thousands of fighters who were registered by the Islamic State when they crossed into Syria from Turkey.
The three German news organizations and Sky News all said they had obtained copies of the list from an anonymous informant. German officials declined to say how they had come in possession of the information.
But Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King’s College London, said such documents have become widely available in Kurdish areas and along Turkey’s border with Syria as discipline within the Islamic State has eroded in recent months.
Some analysts who track the Islamic State have questioned the veracity of the roster, but Mr. Neumann said he believed it was authentic, based on the level of detail, some of which checked out against information he knew.
Germany hopes that information from the documents it holds can serve as evidence in the trials of several citizens facing charges related to terrorist activities, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière told reporters on Tuesday.
“They offer a great chance to provide evidence and to prove that Germans took part in terrorist activities of the so-called Islamic State,” Mr. de Maizière said of the documents. “It is good, because we will be able to better prove these activities, speed and better clarify our investigations and come to stronger sentences.”
Membership in a terrorist organization is a criminal offense in Germany, but the authorities in the past have had a hard time proving that even someone who admitted to having been in Syria actually took part in fighting for the Islamic State. “Now with these documents they can actually prove it, because they show that people were members of the Islamic State,” Mr. Neumann said.
A suspect currently standing trial in a Frankfurt state court on charges of illegal weapons possession and plotting an attack on a sovereign state — he is identified only as Abdulkarim B. in keeping with German privacy laws — was among those identified on the lists seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR, they said. If so, that information would allow prosecutors to press charges of membership in a terrorist organization and that way increase the chances of securing a stronger sentence.
Sky News said the documents include information about 22,000 foreigners from 51 countries, including Britain and the United States, it reported. Recruits were also asked to give their blood types, mothers’ maiden names, “level of Shariah understanding” and previous experience, Sky News said.
Prospective members were also asked whether they wanted to serve as fighters or as suicide bombers, the German news media reported.
The authorities in Germany have said that they believe about 800 citizens have traveled to Syria to fight with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and that about a quarter of them have since returned. Several have been brought before the country’s courts.
The recruits were also asked to name the individuals who brought them into the Islamic State, Mr. Neumann said, noting that such information that could help security officials reconstruct the networks that are used to attract people to the cause.
“You can actually see from these documents who came into the Islamic State based on whose reference,” Mr. Neumann said. “On that basis, you can then construct a recruitment network.”
Mr. de Maizière said that the German authorities seeking to prevent more of their citizens from traveling to Syria would be able to draw on information contained in the documents to strengthen their efforts. “We are better able to understand the structures of this terror organization and use it to discourage any young radicalized individuals,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment