Probes of Islamist extremists by German prosecutor declines

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The number of new investigations against Islamist extremists and terrorist suspects taken up by Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office continued to decline.

The Federal Prosecutor initiated 258 new investigations against suspected Islamists in 2021, the German government said in response to a query from AfD politician Martin Hess.

In 2020, the Federal Public Prosecutor initiated 381 investigations into Islamist extremism and terrorism.

While in 2017 there were 1,031 investigations.

As of March 17, 57 new preliminary investigations into Islamist-motivated extremism and terrorism have been initiated this year so far.

“The proceedings related to Islamist terrorism, relate in particular to acts abroad in connection with the Islamic State and Taliban terrorist organisations and have links to Syria and Iraq or Afghanistan.’’

The Justice Ministry said this in its written response made available to reporters.

Some of the investigations initiated since the beginning of 2021 concern men and women from Germany who had joined the Islamic State terrorist militia abroad.

Last October, Berlin flew eight women into Germany with their children. The mothers are said to have all joined Islamic State.

The women and 23 children between them lived at a prison camp in north-eastern Syria which is under Kurdish administration.

The German Federal Prosecutor initiated 10 investigations into left-wing extremism and left-wing terrorism and six into right-wing extremism and terrorism last year.

(dpa/NAN)