Banned “Caliphate State” Association: Major Raid

Created: 2022-06-28Updated: 2022-06-28 11:31 am

A blue light can be seen on the roof of a police vehicle.

© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Symbolbild

A raid against members of the banned “Caliphate State” association has been underway in six federal states since the morning.

Under the leadership of the State Criminal Police Office of Rhineland-Palatinate, three arrest warrants and 47 search warrants have been executed since 6 a.m., the investigating authority in Mainz said.

The 41 accused are suspected of violating a ban on associations.

Mainz - The investigation is being conducted by the general public prosecutor's offices in Koblenz, Celle and Munich and the public prosecutor's offices in Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Karlsruhe and Cologne.

The "Caliphate State" led by Istanbul-based Metin Kaplan is an Islamist organization.

According to the investigators, their goal is the establishment of an Islamic state while rejecting democratic and rule-of-law principles on the basis of the Koran as the constitution and Sharia as the only applicable law.

The accused are accused of maintaining the organizational cohesion of the indisputably banned “Caliphate State” association as ringleaders, of participating in it as a member or of having spread propaganda material of this association as a non-member.

dpa