Five Tajik Men Charged with Membership in Daesh
Prosecutors said Monday they have accused the men of participating in a cell of the extremist organization in Germany.
Federal prosecutors filed the indictment at the Duesseldorf state court, where an alleged associate of the five was convicted last month of membership in Daesh for co-founding the German cell and supporting two planned attacks. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The suspects now charged were identified only as Farhodshoh K., Muhammadali G., Azizjon B., Sunatullokh K. and Komron B., in keeping with German privacy rules.
Prosecutors say that Azizjon B. administered propaganda channels and helped collect money for a Russian- and Tajik-language Daesh online network, AP reported.
They say he also personally recruited Daesh members, leading to the founding of a cell in western Germany in early 2019 that aimed to carry out attacks in Germany.
The rest of the accused - along with Ravsan B., the man convicted last month - are alleged to have belonged to that cell.
Prosecutors say that they trained their military skills in paintball games, and that participants in those included other people who were in contact with the gunman who killed four people in an attack in Vienna in November. They also allegedly acquired components for an “unconventional” bomb.
Farhodshoh K. and Ravsan B. are accused of traveling to Albania in 2019 to carry out a contract killing that was intended to finance Daesh to the tune of $40,000. That killing was called off because doubts arose over the intended victim’s identity.
