MIDEAST-CRISIS/GERMANY TRIAL German sentenced to 11 years for helping attack on Syrian jail

Record ID: 146975

  • Title: MIDEAST-CRISIS/GERMANY TRIAL German sentenced to 11 years for helping attack on Syrian jail
  • Date: 15th July 2015
  • Summary: MUNICH, GERMANY (JULY 15, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF LOCAL COURT IN MUNICH PEOPLE ENTERING COURT REPRESENTATIVES OF GERMAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR INSIDE COURT ROOM SIGN READING "FEDERAL PUBLIC PROSECUTOR" REPRESENTATIVES OF THE GERMAN FEDERAL PROSECUTOR INSIDE COURT ROOM VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE AT COURT DEFENDANT ENTERING COURT COVERING HIS FACE WITH A NOTEBOOK CLOSE UP OF DEFEND
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6TNCZVUP7QS3AJPZFSX7F1JJL
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A German man of Afghan descent was sentenced to 11 years on Wednesday (July 15) for being a member of a terrorist organisation and an accomplice to murder in Syria after participating in a jihadist attack on a prison in Aleppo.
    Harun P. traveled to Syria in September 2013. He was extradited to Germany after being detained in Prague in April 2014, federal prosecutors say.
    The prosecutors have accused him of joining Junud al Sham, described as an Islamist group with several hundred fighters in Syria trying to depose President Bashar al-Assad.
    They said he had joined in an attack involving some 1,600 jihadists on the central state prison in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in February 2014. Two government soldiers and five inmates died in the assault, they said.
    Thousands of Western volunteers have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join militant groups. The trend has raised fears in Europe and the United States of attacks by returning fighters.
    Andrea Titz, spokeswoman for the Munich State Court, said the sentence had to be read as a message to those considering doing that.
    "The defendant has been judged for three cases of belonging to a terrorist organisation. The first one related to attempted murder in an unknown number of cases and in the second case for assisted murder in 400 cases," she told reporters outside the court room.
    "The message we are sending here today is that Germany will punish strongly those who take part in terrorist actions, even if those actions are committed abroad and against a foreign state," she added.
    Adam Ahemd, lawyer of the defendant, said he was happy with the outcome of the trial as the maximum penalty had been avoided.
    "I am of course, as the defense, happy with the fact that it is not life imprisonment, which is the maximum penalty. The judge said in his announcement that he was facing life imprisonment so if you now look at 11 years, even if it is a high sentence it is still not life imprisonment so it is a good result."
    Security authorities say about 550 German citizens have joined militants fighting in Iraq and Syria and about 60 have been killed, some in suicide attacks. Around 180 are believed to have returned home.
    Germany's government-funded Institute for International and Security Affairs has described Junud al Sham as a well-trained, predominantly Chechen group which has often cooperated with the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's official affiliate in the Syrian war.
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