German company searched on suspicion of terror links

German investigators today searched the premises of an import-export company suspected of being a cover for Islamic fundamentalists.

Searches were carried out in Hamburg and the neighbouring state of Schleswig-Holstein, but the company was not named.

The German-Syrian owner of the firm, his wife and their two sons are being investigated on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organisation, federal prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said they became suspicious of the company manager’s ”atypical” business activities, which they said “point towards organised smuggling activity on the part of the accused”.

"In addition, there is a suspicion that the people accused had contacts with Islamic fundamentalist circles, in particular with people who are being investigated in connection with the terror attacks of September 11, 2001,” they said in a statement.

They said today’s searches were looking for evidence of “the membership of the accused in a criminal organisation in Germany and its integration in an international network of potentially violent Islamic fundamentalists, particularly in connection with financial and other logistical support activities”.

Three of the suicide pilots in the September 11 terror attacks in the US belonged to a Hamburg terror cell, living seemingly normal lives as students.

Only one alleged cell member has been arrested, 28-year-old Mounir El Motassadeq, a Moroccan accused of helping the cell with logistics.

He has been charged with about 3,000 counts of murder and belonging to a terrorist group. His trial begins later this year in Hamburg.

German authorities have issued international arrest warrants for three other suspected members of the cell who disappeared before the attacks.