Al-qaida funds accused goes on trial

A man accused of raising money for al-qaida in Iraq and helping to supply foreign fighters for the insurgency there went on trial today in Germany.

The man – identified only as Redouane EH, 37 – is also accused of being one of the founders of a terrorist group in Sudan along with four others.

The trial at the higher regional court in the northern town of Schleswig began amid high security and is expected to last for at least four court sessions, a spokeswoman said.

Redouane EH, who holds German and Moroccan citizenship and lived in the city of Kiel, was arrested in Hamburg in July 2006.

He is charged with having supported al-qaida in Iraq in nine cases and of having made four money transfers worth a total of €5,000 to Egypt and Syria.

The funds are alleged to have been destined to supply equipment for Islamic radicals and to cover the cost of explosives training and pay off a people smuggler.

Prosecutors said they also believe the suspect swore an oath of loyalty in August 2005 to Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The alleged oath, in which the suspect said he was prepared to provide fighters and financing, was delivered by internet to an intermediary, who prosecutors did not identify.

Prosecutor Matthias Krauss said Redouane EH was accused of using an internet shop in Kiel as his base for communicating with terror cells in several countries.

More than 513,000 internet chats were seized from the server and one third of it had been evaluated, Krauss said.

“This is a pilot project because for the first time, prosecution has been brought on the basis of data obtained from digital subscriber line surveillance,” Krauss said.

During his first trial day, Redouane EH told the court that he left Morocco for Germany in the mid-1990s after graduating from university in Rabat, where he studied philosophy, sociology and psychology.

“I was not politically active then,” he told the court.

In Germany, Redouane EH said, he studied at the universities of Marburg and Kiel and married a German woman, from whom he was divorced in 2001.

He called his brother’s 2003 death “a turning point” and said he subsequently turned to Islam and opened an internet shop in Kiel.

When arrested last year, prosecutors said he was suspected of being in contact with Said Bahaji, who had close ties to three of the September 11 pilots who lived and studied in Hamburg, including plot ringleader Mohamed Atta.

Bahaji fled Germany shortly before the 2001 attacks and is wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Germany.

In May, Sweden handed over a suspected accomplice of Redouane EH who prosecutors said helped him supply foreign fighters to Iraq and founded a terror group in Sudan.

The Moroccan, identified only as 24-year-old Abdelali M, was arrested on March 26 in Sweden on a German-issued warrant, federal prosecutors said. He was transferred to German custody in May.

Prosecutors said today that charges would be filed against two alleged accomplices of Redouane EH.