The German courts issued sentences in the case of 35 ISIS members who have returned to their country in the past years – the total number of returnees is approximately 400 which reflects the obstacles facing the authorities in the prosecution of returned terrorists.
This statistic came as an official response from the German ministry of interior on an inquiry made by the left-wing bloc on Wednesday.
The ministry of interior pointed out that the German government doesn’t have accurate information of what crimes have been committed by those who returned during their time with ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
The public prosecution managed to confirm the charges of ‘supporting terrorism’ in the case of 35 of those who returned from Syria and Iraq.
It proved that 15 members pledged allegiance to ISIS. The prosecution noted that there are ‘indicators’ that one third of the members, exceeding 1000, provided various kinds of support to the terrorist group. The public prosecution aims to collect enough evidence on the involvement, of the returnees, in ISIS crimes to present them before court.
The response of the ministry of interior revealed that the public prosecution only succeeded in few cases in proving the returnees supported terrorism, it also revealed that many of them are living freely in Germany.
The case of ISIS member Hary. S is a sample of those obstacles facing the public prosecution in proving charges – Hamburg Court issued a reduced sentence on Hary. S, 28, that doesn’t exceed three years due to his cooperation with the authorities.
Hary joined ISIS in 2014 but denied taking part in fighting and execution. Following his trial, he appeared in a video for ISIS as one of those involved in executions.
