Germany charges seven suspected ISIS-K members over attack plots

(Corrects number of people charged to seven from six in headline and paragraph 1 and adds suspect in paragraph 2)

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany has charged seven foreign nationals for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks on behalf of the Islamic State Province of Khorasan (ISIS-K), the federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.

The suspects, identified as Turkmen citizen Ata A., Tajik citizens Mukhammadshujo A., Nuriddin K., Shamshud N., Said S., Raboni Z. and Kyrgyz citizen Abrorjon K. are charged with founding a terrorist organisation, among other things.

They intended to carry out high-profile attacks in Germany and Western Europe but had no concrete plan when law enforcement intervened, according to the statement.

The suspects, who were arrested in July last year, had been in touch with ISIS-K, the Afghan offshoot of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for a mass shooting in Moscow last month in which at least 137 people were killed.

According to investigators, the suspects arrived in Germany via Ukraine after war broke out there in spring 2022, and formed a terrorist cell together with another member from the Netherlands.

They met regularly to discuss their intentions and scouted potential locations in Germany, the prosecutors’ statement said.

(This story has been corrected to change the number of people charged from six to seven in the headline and paragraph 1, and to add the names of the suspects in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Andrey Sychev, Editing by Rachel More)