Germany to put 300 on trial for joining Islamic State

Some 300 German nationals are to be put on trial in their home country on charges that they fought for or helped support the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, Berlin’s justice minister said in comments published Sunday.

Heiko Maas told the weekly paper Welt am Sonntag that the success in identifying hundreds of suspects for prosecution in Germany showed that anti-terror laws currently in place are effective, rebuffing calls by some politicians to bolster security legislation.

“Whoever supports Islamic State terrorism can also be tracked even under existing law,” Maas said.

However, Mass noted that he intends to present a bill by the end of the year that will aim to disrupt local financial support for IS and discourage citizens from traveling to take fight with terror groups around the world.

“In the future, it will make it illegal for anyone who wants to leave Germany in order to participate in serious subversive violence abroad or to be trained for participation in such acts,” he said. “We should already preemptively do everything to prevent more people from joining IS.”

About 550 German nationals have joined the IS in Syria and Iraq. Of these, 180 have returned to Germany, according to the head of the German domestic intelligence service.

Some 60 Germans have been killed while fighting under the IS banner in the two countries,Hans-Georg Maassen also told the newspaper.

European and other Western countries have grappled with how to stem the flow of nationals to Syria, and how to keep them radicalized returning fighters from carrying out terror attacks.

Some of those now facing prosecution are to be charged with providing financial support or supplying IS with equipment from Germany, according to Reuters.

Last Friday prosecutors in the trial of an alleged German jihadist called for him to be jailed for more than four years for having fought with IS in Syria.

In the first German criminal proceedings involving IS, Kreshnik Berisha, a 20-year-old born near the business capital Frankfurt to a family from Kosovo, was charged with membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.

He has admitted having joined IS and taken part in fighting in Syria.

But prosecutor Dieter Killmer told the superior regional court in Frankfurt that he doubted the defendant had shown “genuine remorse” based on his statements.

“He’s physically back from Syria, (but) with his ideals, he hasn’t yet arrived back in Germany,” he said.

He called for a sentence of four years and three months, while the defence urged a lesser term of three years and three months.

“He’s shown remorse by having returned,” defense lawyer Mutlu Gunal told the court.

Federal prosecutors say Berisha traveled to Syria via Turkey in July 2013 with other Islamists planning to join the fight to create a “caliphate” straddling Syria and Iraq.

He returned home for reasons that are unclear to German authorities in December 2013 and was arrested at Frankfurt airport.

The trial opened in September this year, and a verdict is expected on December 5.