Abu Walaa: Alleged IS Germany chief is said to have been in prison for more than eleven years

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The defendant Abu Walaa in court in Celle (archive recording)

Photo: Ole Spata / dpa

Abu Walaa and three co-defendants are accused of radicalizing young people, especially in the Ruhr area and the Hildesheim area, and sending them to the fighting areas of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS).

The federal prosecutor's office has now demanded eleven and a half years imprisonment for the Iraqi because he was a member of the terrorist group.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office demanded nine and a half and ten years imprisonment for supporting a terrorist organization abroad for two other alleged IS masterminds.

The prosecution pleaded for four and a half years in prison for the fourth defendant recently released from custody, also for supporting a terrorist organization abroad.

Two of the recruits are said to have committed suicide bombings in Iraq with numerous fatalities.

Another is said to have worked in the IS security apparatus.

Abu Walaa was the imam of the mosque of the now banned German-speaking Islamic Circle Hildesheim (read more here).

The Federal Prosecutor considers the allegations essentially proven.

On the one hand, she relied on a key witness, a young man from Gelsenkirchen.

As a teenager, he got into Islamist circles and, according to his account, traveled to Syria with the help of Abu Walaa's network.

He later turned away from IS and cooperated with the authorities.

Information from what was once the most important informant in the police force in Islamist circles played another key role in the prosecution.

"Murat Cem" or "VP01", who had been a top informant for the police in North Rhine-Westphalia for years, did not receive any permission to testify in the terrorist process.

The defense pleadings are planned for the four upcoming trial days in February, followed by the verdict.

The process has now lasted more than 240 days.

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as / dpa