Germany investigating 200-plus 'IS' suspects
October 11, 2014
German news outlet Spiegel on Saturday reported online that the number of official criminal investigations into suspects believe to be tied to the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group was rising.
"There are currently investigations against more than 200 suspects in connection with IS," Spiegel quoted German Justice Minister Heiko Maas as saying. In September, the figure had stood at 140.
"With the legal tools at our disposal, we will do everything that is also sensible to combat the terror of IS. We also will not tolerate violent riots in Germany," Social Democrat Maas said. However, Maas resisted calls from some political quarters for revisions to Germany's legal code, saying that overly-hasty action could play into the hands of the terrorists.
"The answers to the terrorism of IS can never be allowed to prompt us to permanently limit our own fundamental rights," Maas said, adding that political knee-jerk reactions "don't stop any terrorists."
The Social Democrat also pointed to the 200 ongoing investigations as evidence that the current German legal code "is biting."
Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere formally outlawed IS on September 12, also making it illegal to support the group, financially or otherwise. De Maiziere's ministry has floated the idea of revoking or marking the passports of suspected IS sympathizers, a bid to stop them both leaving to fight in the Middle East, and later returning to Germany.
London's mayor, Boris Johnson, said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper published on Saturday that Britain's security services were monitoring thousands of terrorism suspects in London and were involved in operations on a daily basis. "In London we're very, very vigilant and very, very concerned," Johnson said.
msh/jm (AFP, Reuters)