Germany holds Iraqis in alleged plot on Allawi
Arrests announced as interim prime minister visits BerlinThe Associated Press
Updated: 9:29 a.m. ET Dec. 3, 2004
BERLIN - German authorities arrested three Iraqis on suspicion that they planned an attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi while he was visiting Germany on Friday, the country’s chief prosecutor said.
The arrests were announced while Allawi was in Berlin and hours before he met German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Investigators who had the three suspects under surveillance noticed an increase in activity, phone calls and suspicious movements by one of the suspects before Allawi’s visit that amounted to “evidence of plans of an attack,” chief federal prosecutor Kay Nehm said.
All three were members of the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam, Nehm said at his agency’s headquarters in Karlsruhe.
It was unclear what kind of an attack the group might have planned, and Nehm refused to elaborate. He indicated that initial searches turned up no bomb-making materials or weapons.
“We haven’t found anything yet that suggests an attack,” he said.
But in response to the surveillance, Allawi canceled a planned meeting with Iraqi exiles during his Berlin visit, Nehm said.
The arrests were made in early-morning raids in Berlin, Augsburg and Stuttgart. A total of nine residences and other sites were searched, Nehm said.
Prosecutors are preparing charges of membership in a terrorist organization against the three suspects, all men, he said. |
