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| "Abu Fez" |
Police monitored Redouane E H, 36, on the internet as he aired his Islamist opinions on chat websites and offered to help volunteers go to Iraq to conduct suicide bombings. There was no evidence he was planning attacks in Europe. The police took H into custody Thursday in Hamburg as signs grew that he intended to leave Germany soon. Prosecutors described H as "of Moroccan origin" but did not identify his citizenship. His full name was withheld. The man, who lived in the city of Kiel, north of Hamburg, had acted as an intermediary in contacts with Said Bahaji, who is wanted worldwide as one of the plotters of the September 11, 2001 attacks. H had attended a training course in the use of explosives last November in Algeria with a terrorist group there and was also in contact with violent Islamists in Syria, Algeria and Iraq. After the arrest, police searched several homes in Kiel.
The prosecutors, based in the south-west city of Karlsruhe, said suspicion against H had mounted "because of his statements during internet chats." He had attempted to recruit people for suicide attacks and offered to pass funds to groups mounting such attacks. At a hearing before a federal magistrate, he was remanded in custody on suspicion of the second-degree crime of supporting al-Qaeda rather than the first-degree charge of actually being a member of it.