Mujahideen (actually, a mujahid and a mujahidette) for the dreaded ISIS-K are on trial in the Netherlands. As it happens, they came to the country as Ukrainian “refugees” from Tajikistan.
Public Prosecutor: “Tajik was no refugee from Ukraine, but determined to commit an attack in Netherlands or Germany”
There was not yet a date or target, but Abdulsamal A., (29) from Tajikistan was “determined to commit an attack in the Netherlands or Germany. He posed as a refugee from Ukraine but in reality was head of a secret cell of the ISIS terror group,” according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
by Cyril Rosman
September 26, 2023
Abdusamal himself said on Tuesday, at an interim hearing in the case at the court in Rotterdam that there was little truth to this. The man — slender, muscular, and with a thick, black beard — laid his head down on his arms in anger. His wife and co-suspect asked the court if she “could please go home to her children.”
The story of the Tajik, Abdusamal, and his 31-year-old wife, Gulzira M., is unusual. According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, A. initially went from Turkey to Syria to join ISIS, but that failed. The Turks deported him to Ukraine, after which he came from Kiev to the Netherlands together with his wife after the outbreak of the war there. Here he posed as a member of a Tajiki resistance group, was granted asylum in 2022, and moved into housing in Breda.
Report from secret service
In March of this year, the secret service, AIVD, sent a report to the police that A. was looking for money to buy weapons. Small pistols for a group of “brothers” in Germany who would reportedly use them to commit an “attack for Allah”. The police sent in an infiltrator and eavesdropped on him. On July 6, he and his wife were arrested. In Germany, at the same time, seven men from Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan were arrested. They also “fled” from Ukraine and traveled to Germany.
According to the prosecution, A. was the head of a secret cell in Kiev of the ISKP, the Asian branch of the ISIS terror group. His task was reportedly to plan an attack in Europe. What is striking about this claim: part of it is based on information in 2019 from the Russian intelligence service, FSB. The same FSB that the Dutch security services have been at odds with in recent years. Nevertheless, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that A. and the German-based suspects “were determined to commit an attack in the Netherlands or Germany.” As far as is known, there was as yet no date or target.
Telegram group “Martyrs of Islam”
A’s wife, Gulzira, is also reportedly a radical and helped the men. She was on the message service Telegram as “Martyrs for Islam” and had a document on her phone explaining how to cause explosions.
The suspects arrested in Germany are all still in custody. According to the German Bild newspaper, the Tajiks reportedly claimed to be war refugees from Ukraine, for which they used forged documents. One of the suspects was being housed in a refugee center.
The terror cell reportedly was in contact with the so-called Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). This branch of ISIS is active in South and Central Asia, mainly in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The German (based) suspects had explored potential sites for an attack and were in possession of weapons, German prosecutors say. Most of them also collected money for the ISKP.
According to a new poll, almost two-thirds of Italians are in favor of closing the country’s borders because of migrants. Meanwhile, Germany has implemented a new program to admit queer refugees from Afghanistan.
