Germany charges 3 Iraqis over Allawi death plot

Reuters ^ | November 16 2005 | Mark Trevelyan

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Three Iraqi men will stand trial in Germany accused of planning to kill their visiting prime minister and belonging to a terrorist group, the German prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.

It said the three were members of Ansar al-Islam, which the United States calls a major insurgent group linked to al Qaeda.

Two of them, named as Ata R., 31, and Mazen H., 23, are also accused of collecting and transferring funds to Iraq and Iran on behalf of the network.

The third man, named as Rafik Y., 31, had phoned the others to obtain their approval for an attempt to assassinate then-Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Berlin on December 2 and 3 last year, the prosecutor's office said.

It said the other two, based in southern Germany, gave him the go-ahead by phone and "offered him financial support".

The indictment said Rafik then drove through central Berlin to spy out a Deutsche Bank building where Allawi was due to hold a meeting the next day. All three men were arrested that night on the basis of the intercepted phone conversations.

In the days after the arrests, German authorities said they had not discovered any weapons or explosives. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office declined on Wednesday to comment on how the alleged plot against Allawi was to have been carried out.

ALLEGED RINGLEADER

Ata R., the alleged ringleader, was described as the most senior member of Ansar al-Islam in Germany.

"He was informed of attacks and plans for attacks ... He carried out a central steering and coordinating function both in Germany and other European countries. In addition, he was entrusted with recruiting new members and potential suicide attackers," the prosecutor's office said.

"His responsibilities included collecting and sending money for Ansar al-Islam to Iraq and Iran, as well as procuring money, when instructed, for certain terrorist enterprises and activities of the organization."

Asked about the significance of the alleged transfers to Iran, the spokeswoman said the money went to Ansar members based there who then passed it on to Iraq. She said there was no suggestion Iranian state authorities were involved.

The probe is the latest of a series of investigations into alleged connections between European-based Islamists and insurgents who are trying to bring down the Iraqi government and drive U.S. and coalition forces out of the country.

European investigators say the U.S. invasion of Iraq acted as a powerful spur for recruitment of militants on the continent, some of whom have traveled to join the insurgency. They fear some will return, battle-hardened, from Iraq and may carry out attacks on home soil.

"Europe runs the risk of being badly struck by a new terrorist wave," France's top terrorism investigator Jean-Louis Bruguiere told a Berlin security conference last week. "It is obvious that the Iraqi issue has had, and still has, a direct impact on the evolution of the threat."

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