An Islamist's Return US Hands Over Suspected German Terrorist
Ahmed Siddiqui had been held at the US Bagram military prison near Kabul since July 2010 until his handover to German authorities on Thursday.
Foto: Dar Yasin/ APUnited States officials on Thursday returned 36-year-old Ahmed Wali Siddiqui of Hamburg, a suspected terrorist, to Germany. Siddiqui had been detained by US special forces in July 2010 in Kabul and had been held at the Bagram US military prison ever since.
He was flown from the US military prison at Bagram to the Ramstein US military base in Germany, where he was turned over to German federal prosecutors, who are expected to interrogate him extensively before handing him off to legal authorities in Hamburg.
The German Federal Prosecutor's Office is investigating Siddiqui on, among other things, possible charges of membership in a foreign terrorist organization and having received weapons and bombs training.
In a statement, German prosecutors said Siddiqui, a German national of Afghan descent, "is strongly suspected of being a member of the foreign terrorist organization 'Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU)." Prosecutors said IMU's goal is to establish a religious-fundamentalist society in Central Asia and that it uses terrorist means against Pakistani security forces and against NATO troops in Afghanistan in the pursuit of its aims.
Contacts with bin Laden Confidant
Siddiqui has already confessed to US interrogators that he participated in fighting and that he had met with and taken assignments from Sheikh Younis al-Mauretani, a top terrorist with close ties to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Several terror warnings issued by German security agencies in recent months were reportedly based on Siddiqui's statements to interrogators. Siddiqui reported having been told of impending attacks in Europe by al-Mauretani.
Siddiqui belongs to the so-called " travel group " of 11 would-be jihadists who journeyed in March 2009 from Hamburg to Pakistan. The group's members had frequently attended the Taiba mosque in Hamburg, formerly known as the Al-Quds mosque, which had been the place of worship of the Hamburg cell of the 9/11 terrorists. The mosque has since been shut down by German authorities.
Three members of his group had already been arrested at the time of their arrival in the region. Another was reportedly sent back to Germany because he was incompetent as a jihadist. Two men in the group died in rocket attacks and two further me, including Siddiqui were eventually detained by the Americans.
A 57-year-old Afghan man who was considered the group's guide went underground as soon as he arrived in Pakistan, meaning that the members of the "travel group" never succeeded in their plan to join the jihad. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle had intervened several times in the case and called on the US return Siddiqui to Germany in requests made several times to his American counterpart, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
