Kurds wiretapped before murder

Terrorists who plotted an assassination attempt on the prime minister were convicted in Germany

In the southern German city of Stuttgart, yesterday the trial of the assassination attempt on Ayad Allawi , then the Prime Minister of Iraq, who came to power thanks to the support of the United States and Great Britain, during his visit to the country, was completed in December 2004 in Berlin. The proceedings were the most impressive ever to take place in the Federal Republic in connection with terrorist activities: 114 trials took place over two years.

In the dock were three Iraqi Kurds who permanently lived in different cities of Germany - Berlin, Stuttgart and Augsburg. All three, in accordance with the verdict, received significant sentences - from seven and a half to ten years in prison. They were charged not only with the attempt to commit murder itself, which in fact was the failed attempt, but also with the active participation of the defendants in the activities of a foreign terrorist organization. We are talking about the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam (Supporters of Islam). The Bundestag, shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States, passed a law prohibiting such activities.

Judge Christine Rebsam-Bender, reading the verdict, noted that 34-year-old Iraqi Ata R. from Stuttgart (local law prohibits the names of the defendants from being published in such cases) is “an important leading member of Ansar al-Islam in Germany.” The investigation proved that he maintained contacts with the leadership of this organization in Iraq itself. 26-year-old Matsen A.Kh. from Bavarian Augsburg was, in fact, the right hand of Ata R. and was preparing to, if necessary, lead the German Ansar al-Islam network. And Berliner Rafik J. is “the main inspirer of the assassination attempt,” since he had the idea of ​​reprisals against Allawi during his visit to Berlin. Rafik Y.'s proposal was supported by both leaders of the terrorist group.

It is noteworthy that the attempt itself was not brought to the practical stage of implementation. Detectives did not find any weapons or explosives on the accused. But the guilt of the Kurds under the relevant articles of the German criminal code was fully proven. The conspirators began to be monitored in October 2003, that is, long before the Iraqi prime minister arrived in Germany. The telephone conversations and email correspondence of the head of the German branch of Ansar al-Islam, Ata R., were monitored. The federal prosecutor's office demanded several longer sentences for the accused than they were given. The lawyers insisted on recognizing the innocence of their clients and announced their intention to appeal the verdict.

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin