A German court has ruled that a group of Islamists did not break the law when forming a ‘Sharia police force’ in 2014. The group caused public outrage after patrolling a western city in orange vests, instructing residents to abide by the strict Muslim code.

The group's vests had ‘Sharia Police’ printed on them in large block letters, but this did not breach the countrywide ban on political uniforms, the judges ruled. Under German law, a uniform has to be "suggestively militant" or have an "intimidating effect” to constitute a violation.

The judges specifically cited one eyewitness who believed the vests were themed costumes for a bachelor party. They went on to state that there was no proof to suggest that the men were wearing the vests to break the law intentionally.

The court also noted that police in Wuppertal did not find anything criminal about the men wearing the vests, which were not seized by officers at the time.

The ruling has not yet come into effect and can still be appealed by the state prosecutor.

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The men, all aged between 25 and 34, sparked anger by patrolling the streets of Wuppertal in 2014, telling nightclub goers to refrain from drinking alcohol and listening to music, and arcade customers not to play games for money, so as not to contradict the strict Muslim religious code of conduct known as Sharia law.

The group was headed by Sven Lau, a controversial Salafist leader who is currently on trial for supporting a terrorist group fighting in Syria.

In a debate on RT, Maximilian Krah of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said that the verdict showed that Germany’s courts are unprepared for the culture clash with its Muslim minority.

“The German society and the legal system have no weapons to protect the liberty of the citizens,” he said. “If the country decides that it wants to follow the liberal rules, then the state has the duty to enforce those liberties against the attempts of people in the other way. And this is not what happens in Germany."

“It’s very easy. If you come to Rome, live like the Romans,” he added.

But Remzi Aru of the German Democratic Alliance countered by pointing out the double standards towards Muslims when compared to other religious groups.

“I am against those things, but for everybody, not just Muslims,” he said.

“If you look at the rules and the laws the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you, it is very similar: you should not drink, you should not gamble, you should not drink alcohol, you should not do this, you should not do that. They are ringing your door and the people are not loving it, but they accept it so long as it's within the frame of law. There is freedom of religion in Europe, as long as these people do not harm you and don’t force you to do something.”

Wuppertal is one of Germany's most popular cities for Salafists, who follow a very conservative interpretation of Islam and reject any form of democracy.

The Monday ruling comes as Germany continues to struggle with the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, which resulted in more than 1 million mainly Muslim asylum seekers entering the country in 2015. Many residents across Germany have been vocal in opposing the arrival of the refugees, condemning Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy for those fleeing war and persecution. </s> A German court has ruled that a group of Islamists did not break the law in forming “sharia police” street patrols and telling people to stop drinking, gambling and listening to music.

The ultra-conservative Muslim group around the German Salafist convert Sven Lau sparked public outrage with their vigilante patrols in the western city of Wuppertal in 2014, but prosecutors have struggled to build a case against them.

The city’s district court ruled that the seven accused members of the group did not breach a ban on political uniforms when they approached people while wearing orange vests bearing the words “Sharia Police”.

Judges said there could only be a violation of the law – originally aimed against street movements such as the early Nazi party – if the uniforms were “suggestively militant or intimidating”, a court spokesman said.

In this case, they found that the vests were not threatening and noted that one witness said he thought the men were part of a bachelor party.

The same court had already thrown out the case last year, but was overruled on appeal by a higher court which agreed with prosecutors that the ban on uniforms could be applied in this case.

Monday’s verdict is not yet final and may still be appealed.

The “sharia police” members walked the streets of Wuppertal in September 2014, telling nightclub-goers to refrain from drinking alcohol and listening to music, and arcade customers not to play games for money.

Lau, the organiser, is one of Germany’s most controversial and best-known Islamist preachers. He is currently on trial in a separate case on charges of backing “a terrorist group” fighting in Syria.

So-called “sharia patrols” by sometimes violent radical young Salafists have also been seen in other European cities such as London, Copenhagen and Hamburg. </s> Judges at Wuppertal's district court said on Monday that the seven accused members of the group did not break any laws while wearing orange vests bearing the words "shariah police."

According to the judges, one could have spoken of a violation only if the uniforms were "suggestively militant" or had had an "intimidating effect." Judges referred to an eye-witness saying that he thought the men wearing the vests were having a bachelor party. They also said that there was no proof to suggest that the men - all between 25 and 34 years of age - were wearing the vests intentionally to break the law.

Furthermore, judges said that police in Wuppertal also did not find anything punishable about the men wearing the vests, which were not seized by the officers. There was therefore no reason to punish the men.

The ruling has not yet come into effect and the state prosecutor can still appeal against it.

The "shariah police" caused a furore in 2014 when its members, headed by Salafist leader Sven Lau, patrolled streets near Wuppertal's central station, telling people to refrain from drinking alcohol, listening to music and gambling - in accordance with the Muslim religious code of conduct, known as the "Sharia."

Sven Lau is being tried for allegedly supporting the terror group "Jamwa" in Syria

Lau is a controversial Islamist preacher and is currently on trial for backing a terror group fighting in Syria. Similar "sharia police" groups have been reportedly operating in London, Copenhagen and Hamburg.

mg/kl (AFP, KNA) </s> Islamic fundamentalists who patrol the streets of Germany acting as “Sharia police” and scolding people not to drink, gamble or listen to music aren’t doing anything illegal, a court ruled.

The ultra-conservative anti-party patrols have enraged Germans with antics eerily reminiscent of the Nazis.

According to The Local, the patrols were founded by German Salafist convert Sven Lau to enforce Islamic law in the city of Wuppertal.

The court ruled they did not breach a ban on political uniforms by wearing orange vests with the words “Sharia Police” on them.

One man wrote of the judges: “You have just allowed your nation’s laws to be superseded by ‘religious’ edicts. Will you be wearing a hijab instead of a robe now?”

Another wrote: “Words fail me. Now everyone can wear their own uniform and be ‘law’ enforcers on German streets. Hope someone will appeal this verdict and have it overturned.”

But the judges said it would only be a violation of the law if the uniforms were “suggestively militant or intimidating.”

Lau is one of Germany’s best-known Islamist preachers and is on trial for backing a terrorist group.

The patrols have also been reported in London, Copenhagen and Hamburg. </s> The Vienna Criminal Court sentenced an Austrian man of Albanian descent to nine years in prison on Friday in connection with plans for two Islamist extremist attacks in Germany.

The case highlights the challenges posed by radicalized youth ready to commit acts of terror at home and in neighboring countries.

Read more: Report: 12-year-old planned two bomb attacks in German city of Ludwigshafen

What the court found

The man was found guilty of inciting a 12-year-old German-Iraqi boy to target a Christmas market in the city of Ludwigshafen. The child had tried but failed to detonate an explosive belt at the market in late 2016.

During the trial, the 19-year-old admitted to being a member of the "Islamic State," but downplayed his role in plotting the attacks.

Reacting to his lengthy sentence, he turned defiant, saying: "I don't give a s***!"

What else happened in court?

As well as plotting multiple murders, the defendant was found guilty of membership of a terrorist organization.

The jury found the 19-year-old had incited his wife — whom he married under Sharia Law — to attack the Ramstein Air Base.

The 17-year-old girl with Moroccan heritage said she had fallen in love and let herself be influenced.

The market plotter, now aged 14, tried to cover for his older friend. "The idea was mine," he told the court.

The boy said he had considered beheading a priest, attacking a bus, or a hospital.

Read more: German prisons: 150 dangerous Islamists need deradicalizing, say police

Germany's biggest Islamist trials Failed Bonn bomb The blue bag left on the platform at Bonn's central station in 2012 contained explosives that did not go off, but a city-wide manhunt unfolded. Marco G. was eventually arrested and charged with planting the bomb. Three others are charged with plotting to assassinate a politician from the far-right PRO-NRW party. Their group allegedly drew inspration from an Islamist movement in Uzbekistan.

Germany's biggest Islamist trials Frankfurt airport bus attack In March 2011, Arid Uka shot dead two US servicemen waiting for a bus at Frankfurt airport prior to deployment in Afghanistan. "This is indeed the first Islamic-motivated terror strike to have happened in Germany," the judge said, adding Uka had sought revenge for military operations in Afghanistan. Uka, born in Kosovo, acted alone and was sentenced to life in prison in February 2012.

Germany's biggest Islamist trials The Sauerland Cell The "Sauerland Cell" was a German cell of the Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), a terrorist group on the Pakistani-Afghan border. The four German and Turkish men had planned large-scale bomb attacks against American targets in Germany from their base in the western region of the Sauerland. Arrested in September 2007, they were sentenced in March 2010 for up to 12 years.

Germany's biggest Islamist trials Sharia Police Sven Lau, a Salafist Muslim, was the man behind a well-known Islamist publicity stunt. In 2014, Lau led several men around the city of Wuppertal in orange security vests labeled "Sharia police." Acting as state authorities, they warned people visiting local clubs and bars to adhere to Sharia, or Islamic law. He is currently on trial for backing a terror group fighting in Syria.

Germany's biggest Islamist trials Big mouth Nils D., a Salafist from Dinslaken, joined the "Islamic State" in Syria in October 2013. He tracked down the group's deserters - armed with explosives and guns. He returned to Germany a year later, and boastful statements about his time in Syria eventually got him arrested. He confessed the names of other German Islamic extremists and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail.

Germany's biggest Islamist trials "Biggest mistake of my life" On the final day of Harry S.'s July 2016 trial, he said "going to Syria was the biggest mistake of my life." The Bremen-born Muslim convert spent three months with "Islamic State" in Syria in 2015. He wanted out after civilians were murdered for a short recruitment film he helped make. He was sentenced to three years in jail for being part of a foreign terrorist organization.



What happens next?

Defense lawyer Wolfgang Blaschilz said he would consider appealing.

Blaschilz said the nine-year sentence was "way too much," and added that his client's deradicalization process was underway.

Read more: Preventing terrorism: What powers do German security forces have?

kw/sms (AP, dpa)

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here. </s> Two alleged supporters of a neo-Nazi terrorist group have been arrested after 155kg of explosives were discovered in Germany.

One suspect had built a homemade bomb emblazoned with a swastika and symbol of the Nazi SS, prosecutors announced on Saturday.

The men, aged 18 and 24, were arrested after the explosives were discovered inside a house in Lauterecken, causing more than 80 local residents to be evacuated from the surrounding area so the material could be safely removed.

The pair denied planning a terror attack when they were arrested in December, SWR television reported, claiming to be amateur pyrotechnics preparing for a New Year’s Eve firework display.

The two men, of German origin, are being held on suspicion of violating explosives laws and preparing a “serious act of state-threatening violence”.

Prosecutors are examining a possible link to the Oldschool Society (OSS), an extremist organisation known to have planned attacks on refugee centres and mosques since it emerged in 2014.

A spokesperson said the teenage suspect told investigators he had attended an OSS meeting in Rhineland-Palatinate state over the summer, the DPA news agency reported.

Four members of the group are already on trial in Munich for allegedly planning an attack on asylum seekers.

Federal prosecutors charged the three men and a woman with “establishing a terror organisation” and preparing attacks using explosives in January 2015.

Officials said members had planned to bomb refugee accommodation in the German town of Borna, and travelled to the Czech Republic to buy pyrotechnics which they planned to make into bombs packed with nails and fuel.

The interior ministry has classified the OSS as a dangerous organisation but it was also dubbed the “stupidest terror group in Germany” by media reporting that members discussed plots openly on Facebook.

A rise in extremism has been documented in Germany since the start of the refugee crisis and a series of terror attacks, with far-right groups including Pegida staging protests against immigration and the “Islamification of Europe”.

Numerous attacks on refugee centres have been documented as part of a rise in political violence by both the right and left wing.

German security services also remain on alert for possible Isis-inspired terror attacks following the massacre at a Berlin Christmas market and two previous attacks over the summer. </s> The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that left 12 people dead and nearly 50 injured.

IS said in a statement from its Amaq news agency that the attacker “in Berlin is a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the attack in response to calls for targeting citizens of the Crusader coalition”.

Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refuelling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition fighting militants in Syria, as well as a frigate protecting a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean.

The claim of responsibility came not long after German prosecutors said they had released a man arrested on Monday night near the scene of the attack, initially suspected of driving the truck.

The man, a Pakistani citizen who came to Germany last year, had been picked up based on a description of a suspect who jumped out of the truck and fled.

However, police said they lacked sufficient evidence tying him to the rampage.

And federal prosecutors said late on Tuesday that he had denied any involvement and they had found no forensic evidence proving he was in the cab during the rampage.

Additionally, no witnesses had followed him from the scene to the spot where he was picked up.

Under German law, prosecutors have until the end of the calendar day following an arrest to seek a formal warrant which would keep a suspect in custody.

Federal Criminal Police Office chief Holger Muench and other officials had expressed doubt earlier that the man in custody was driving the truck at the time of the attack. Muench also said police had not yet found a pistol which authorities believe was used to kill a Polish truck driver who was supposed to be delivering the steel beams the truck was carrying.

Berlin police, meanwhile, urged people to remain “particularly vigilant” and report “suspicious movements” to a special hotline.

“We may still have a dangerous criminal out there,” Berlin police chief Klaus Kandt said.

Germany’s top prosecutor, Peter Frank, told reporters the attack on the market outside the landmark Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church was reminiscent of July’s deadly truck attack in Nice and appeared to follow instructions published by the Islamic State group.

“There is also the prominent and symbolic target of a Christmas market, and the modus operandi that mirrors at least past calls by jihadi terror organizations,” Frank said.

Still, he said authorities had not yet heard any claim of responsibility.

Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted the attack could not change Germans’ way of life.

“Twelve people who were still among us yesterday, who were looking forward to Christmas, who had plans for the holidays, aren’t among us anymore,” she said in an emotional, nationally televised statement before heading to the scene of the attack in downtown Berlin. “A gruesome and ultimately incomprehensible act has robbed them of their lives.”

Later, Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck attended a memorial service at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and laid white roses.

Witnesses saw only one man flee from the truck after it rammed into the crowd at the Christmas market, smashing wooden stalls and travelling 60 to 80 metres before coming to a halt.

Six of those killed have been identified as Germans, and a man found shot and killed in the truck’s passenger seat was Polish. The other five people killed have not yet been identified. Twenty-five people remained hospitalized, 14 with serious injuries.

Merkel, who has been criticized for allowing in huge numbers of migrants last year, addressed head-on the possibility that an asylum-seeker was responsible for the carnage.

“I know that it would be particularly hard for us all to bear if it were confirmed that a person committed this act who asked for protection and asylum in Germany,” Merkel said. “This would be particularly sickening for the many, many Germans who work to help refugees every day and for the many people who really need our help and are making an effort to integrate in our country.”

A spokesman for Berlin’s office for refugee affairs said police conducted a broad search overnight at a large shelter for asylum-seekers at the city’s now-defunct Tempelhof airport. Four men in their late 20s were questioned but no one was arrested, Sascha Langenbach said.

The Polish owner of the truck said he feared the vehicle had been hijacked. Ariel Zurawski said he last spoke with the driver, his cousin, around noon on Monday and the driver told him he was in Berlin and scheduled to unload Tuesday morning.

“They must have done something to my driver,” he said.

Germans have been increasingly wary since two attacks by asylum-seekers last summer that were claimed by the Islamic State group. Five people were wounded in an axe rampage on a train near Wuerzburg and 15 wounded in a bombing outside a bar in Ansbach, both in the southern state of Bavaria. Both attackers were killed.

Those attacks and two others which were unrelated to Islamic extremism have contributed to tensions in Germany over the arrival last year of 890,000 migrants.

Far-right groups and a nationalist party seized on Monday night’s attack, blaming Merkel for what happened.

“Under the cloak of helping people Merkel has completely surrendered our domestic security,” Frauke Petry, the co-chairwoman of the Alternative for Germany party, wrote.

Manfred Weber, a member of Merkel’s conservative bloc and leader of the European Parliament’s biggest political group, cautioned against sweeping verdicts but said it was important to ensure that extremists did not enter the country.

The German government said Merkel spoke on Tuesday with US President Barack Obama, who expressed his condolences. In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the United States was ready to help in the investigation and response.

US President-elect Donald Trump said Islamic extremists must be “eradicated from the face of the Earth” and pledged to carry out that mission with all “freedom-loving partners”.

The attack came less than a month after the US State Department warned that extremist groups, including Islamic State and al-Qaida, were focussing “on the upcoming holiday season and associated events” in Europe.

The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have both called on followers to use trucks in particular to attack crowds. On 14 July, a truck ploughed into Bastille Day revellers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 86 people. IS claimed responsibility for that attack, which was carried out by a Tunisian living in France. </s> Ten alleged extreme-right militants suspected of a terrorist plot to attack Muslims in France are to appear before a judge and face preliminary charges.

Nine men and one woman aged 32 to 69 – including one retired police officer – were arrested in raids across France on Saturday, in the Paris area, the Mediterranean island of Corsica and the western Charentes-Maritimes region.

Police had linked the ten to a little-known group called Action des Forces Operationnelles (Operational Forces Action), which urges French people to combat Muslims, or what it calls “the enemy within”. Rifles, handguns and homemade grenades were found during searches.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that it had asked an investigating judge to file preliminary charges.

In a statement, the prosecutor said an array of weapons and potential bomb-making equipment were found and authorities feared a violent act but “at this stage” couldn’t determine the exact targets. The group, which was seeking to expand, offered combat and survivalist training and held meetings to define its objectives and how to attain them, the prosecutor said. Some had tested homemade grenades and explosives.

The “Guerre de France” (War for France) website of the shadowy Operational Forces Action group depicts an apocalyptic battle scene under the Eiffel Tower, and claims to prepare “French citizen-soldiers for combat on national territory”.

France’s TF1 television reported earlier this week that the group had allegedly planned to randomly target women wearing headscarves in the street and had also allegedly planned to hit targets linked to radical Islam.

“I’m not surprised by these arrests because the current climate of Islamophobia encourages this sort of passage from words to deeds,” said Abdallah Zekri of the French Council of the Muslim Faith after the arrests.

The Council said it was particularly worried about the security of the country’s roughly 2,500 mosques.

France registered 72 violent anti-Muslim acts last year, up from 67 in 2016.

In a statement at the time of the weekend arrests, the interior minister, Gérard Collomb, emphasised the “total mobilisation” of security services “to prevent any disturbance to public order and any threat to people and property, especially those targeting a particular religion.” </s> BERLIN (AFP) - The suspect in the deadly shooting attack at a Christmas market in eastern France was jailed for burglary in Germany but was not deemed a potentially dangerous Islamist, German authorities said on Wednesday (Dec 12).

"For us, he was a blank slate," said a spokeswoman of the Federal Criminal Police Office, which handles cases related to terrorism.

An interior ministry spokeswoman also said that there has been no indications suggesting an Islamist link to the suspect.

The 29-year-old suspect was sentenced to two years and three months for burglaries in the southwestern city of Mainz and in Baden-Wuerttemberg state farther south, and jailed in 2016.

"He served a year in Germany before being expelled to France," a spokesman from Baden-Wuerttemberg's interior ministry told AFP.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, the man broke into a dentist practice in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate state, in 2012, making away with cash, stamps and gold used for teeth fillings.

Four years later, he hit a pharmacy in the Lake Constance town of Engen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, pocketing cash.

German authorities were on the lookout for the fugitive "along the Rhine" river region, the ministry spokesman said.

"But at the moment we do not believe that he has crossed into the country," he added.

The gunman opened fire Tuesday evening at the famed Strasbourg Christmas market, which draws thousands of visitors every year.

The shooting left two people dead and 13 wounded.

French authorities said the attacker had been on their list of extremists and "is actively being hunted by security forces".

Meanwhile, German police said they have released three people earlier detained following tipoffs from the public following the Strasbourg attack.

The three were in a taxi with French licence plates which was halted on the A1 motorway close to the city Bremen, a police spokesman in Delmenhorst told national news agency DPA.

Police said they have been freed after investigations ruled out any connection to the attack in Strasbourg.

Police also denied an earlier report that one of the three was masked.
A German court acquits seven Islamists who formed a "Sharia police force" in the city of Wuppertal in 2014 after determining that they were not violating a law against "intimidating or militant uniforms".