An explosive report from the German publication Der Spiegel says a new investigation was launched recently by Merkel’s security authorities into whether or not thousands of Afghan refugees are former Taliban fighters.
SCARY!
Der Spiegel reports via Google Translate:
In the course of the refugee crisis, several thousand Taliban fighters from Afghanistan may have come to Germany since the year 2015 . According to SPIEGEL information, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) reported to the German security authorities that a mean four-digit number of people in their interviews had already indicated that they had contacts with, or even fought for, the radical Islamist group in Afghanistan.
There is a lot of work to be done on the safety authorities because of the self-condemnation. According to SPIEGEL information, the prosecutor’s office already determines in more than 70 cases. Six men are under investigation. Next week in Berlin and Koblenz begin the first proceedings against accused Afghans. (Read here the whole story in the new SPIEGEL .)
It is unclear whether the refugees actually are former Taliban fighters. The authorities are still puzzling about the motives of the accused: some hope for a better ride if they spend themselves as a former Taliban. They may speculate that they will not be deported to Afghanistan, because membership of the Taliban will be punished with the death penalty.
“Limits of performance”
German investigators are now expecting numerous terrorist attacks against alleged Taliban fighters – in addition to ongoing trials against alleged members of the “Islamic State”. Peter Frank, the prosecutor-general, had only warned the provincial justice ministers in January in a fire letter that “the limits of the capacity” of his people had been reached.
The Taliban is a fusion of different Islamic groups, which in Afghanistan took over the power in the country shaken by the civil war at the end of the nineties. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 , they were expelled from the major cities by the US-led military intervention.
However, the group is still active today. Thus, the Taliban fought with attacks and attacks until 2014 bitterly against the international forces stationed in Afghanistan, and the German Armed Forces in the north of the country again and again hit the Islamists.
This isn’t the first time Germany has had issues with the Taliban in relation to its refugee program.
The Daily Caller reports:
The Taliban’s health minister during the late 1990s recently tried to seek asylum in Germany under a fake identity.
Abdul Rauf Mohammad and his family were caught using fake passports as they tried to get through customs at Frankfurt Airport in November. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees was surprised when they realized the man was actually a high-ranking Taliban member, Der Spiegel reported Friday.
Mohammed reportedly met with al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden on several occasions before leaving Afghanistan after a fallout with the Taliban leadership.
Mohammed was granted asylum in Norway in 2000 but was deported in 2014 on suspicion of radicalizing young Muslims. He then returned home to Afghanistan.
Germany hopes to deport thousands of Afghans during 2017. The interior ministry claims many Afghans claim they fought for the Taliban, sometimes involuntarily, to avoid deportations.
Migrants have been warned that pretending to be a former Taliban member will lead to prosecutions, although such proceedings would delay their expulsions.
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