Germany, Netherlands Arrest 9 over Alleged Plan for Attacks in Line with ISIS

The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
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Germany, Netherlands Arrest 9 over Alleged Plan for Attacks in Line with ISIS

The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
The sun rises over the city of Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, July 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Nine people from central Asia were arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on Thursday in connection to alleged plans to carry out attacks in Germany in line with ISIS’ ideology, authorities said.

Seven men arrested in Germany are accused of founding a militant group and of supporting ISIS, German federal prosecutors said. All had known each other for a long time, had radical views and came to Germany more or less simultaneously from Ukraine shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year, they added.

A year ago, the suspects allegedly formed a group that aimed to carry out attacks in Germany. According to prosecutors, the group was in contact with an ISIS offshoot, ISIS Khorasan Province.

Its members had checked out possible targets in Germany and attempted to procure weapons, but “there was no concrete plan for an attack at the time of today's arrest," The Associated Press quoted prosecutors as saying in a statement. All but one of the men arrested in Germany had been collecting money for ISIS since April 2022 and transferring it to the group, they added.

In the Netherlands, the public prosecution service said that a 29-year-old Tajik man and his 31-year-old Kyrgyz wife, who had been living in the country since last year, were arrested on suspicion of committing preparatory acts for attacks. The man is also suspected of membership in ISIS.

Police suspect that the man “was given the order to plot a terrorist attack,” the prosecution service said in a statement. It said the plans were serious enough for prosecutors to intervene, although they were “not yet concrete.” German prosecutors said the man arrested in the Netherlands belonged to the group formed by the other suspects.

The arrests in Germany were made in various locations in North Rhine-Westphalia state, which borders the Netherlands. German prosecutors identified the men arrested there as Turkmen citizen Ata A., Kyrgyz national Abrorjon K., and Tajik citizens Mukhammadshujo A., Nuriddin K., Shamshud N., Said S. and Raboni Z.

Their full names weren't released in line with German privacy rules.



Slovenia Declares Two Israeli Ministers Persona Non Grata

Israeli right-wing Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attend a session at the plenum at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem December 28, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli right-wing Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attend a session at the plenum at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem December 28, 2022. (Reuters)
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Slovenia Declares Two Israeli Ministers Persona Non Grata

Israeli right-wing Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attend a session at the plenum at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem December 28, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli right-wing Knesset members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attend a session at the plenum at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem December 28, 2022. (Reuters)

Slovenia declared two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, persona non grata on Thursday, the first European Union country to do so, Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said.

The government accused Israel's national security minister Ben-Gvir and finance minister Smotrich - both West Bank settlers - of making "genocidal statements" and inciting violence against Palestinians.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel's government which has regularly rejected accusations of genocide in Gaza, and says it is acting in self-defense following the deadly October 7, 2023, attack led by Hamas gunmen.

Fajon said Slovenia had decided to make the move after EU foreign ministers did not agree on joint action against Israel over charges of human rights violations at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"Today, the government adopted one of the first national measures, which is to declare two Israeli ministers... unwanted in the Republic of Slovenia," Fajon told a news conference.

"This kind of measure is the first of its kind in the European Union. We are breaking new ground," she said. Other measures were being prepared, she added, without going into detail.

Slovenia's government issued a statement saying the ministers "publicly advocate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the forced evictions of Palestinians, and call for violence against the civilian Palestinian population".

Last year, Slovenia recognized an independent Palestinian state.

In June, Britain, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, imposed sanctions on the two Israeli ministers, accusing them of inciting violence against Palestinians.

Israel began its offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel in 2023 in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, according to Israeli tallies, and 251 people were taken to Gaza and held hostage.

Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.