Terroristcell grundades ifrån Märsta

Thaer Alhalah greps i Sverige i mars 2007. Då hade han enligt uppgift bott här i över ett år med uppehållstillstånd. Idag erkände han inför domstol att han grundat en terroristcell.

AP:

A Jordanian man confessed in a plea agreement to co-founding a terrorist group, telling a German court as his trial opened Wednesday that he participated in online discussions about setting up a training camp in Sudan.

Thaer Alhalah, 33, told the Schleswig-Holstein state court he had contact with other group members through online chat groups and telephone calls starting in April 2006.

Asked when the plans to start a camp in Sudan took form, Alhalah said: "They just developed."

Speaking in Arabic through a translator, he told the court that jihad, or holy war, "for a Muslim is self defense."

"If someone attacks my country or my belongings with violence, I am ready to defend my country and my belongings with weapons," he said.

The confession to charges of founding a terrorist organization abroad was part of a plea deal that means Alhalah will be sentenced at most to two years in prison, compared to the legal maximum of up to 10 years.

With the time he has already served while awaiting trial and German laws requiring only a percentage of a sentence be served, he will most likely be freed and sent back to Jordan in April, prosecutors said.

Born in Kuwait in 1974, Alhalah moved to Jordan in 1990, then to Iraq in 1994 to attend university in Baghdad. He spent time living in Australia and was back-and-forth to Jordan before moving in 2005 to Sweden, where he was arrested in 2007 on a warrant from Germany for his alleged involvement in forming the terrorist group.

Prosecutors claim he founded the group in June or July of 2006 along with four other people. Among them was 38-year-old Redouane El Habhab, a German of Moroccan heritage whom prosecutors consider the group's ringleader, who was convicted by the same court in January. El Habhab was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison; he is expected to testify Thursday in Alhalah's trial.

Så här skrev Svenska Dagbladet/TT om utlämnandet då det begav sig:

I början av april lämnade svenska myndigheter över en 32-årig jordanier till den tyska riksåklagaren. Beslutet togs under den europeiska arresteringsordern, som gör det möjligt att lämna ut brottsmisstänkta EU-medborgare och andra som uppehåller sig inom unionen till rättsväsendet i det land där de misstänks för brott.

Nu har alltså en 26-årig marockan åkt samma väg, uppger tyska åklagarmyndigheter för AFP.

De båda männen greps i mars av svensk polis, efter tysk efterlysning. De anhölls, häktades, och tingsrätten har därefter fattat beslut att båda ska utlämnas.

Männen bodde tillsammans i en lägenhet i Märsta utanför Stockholm. 26-åringen kom till Sverige i början av året och sökte asyl. 32-åringen ska ha vistats i Sverige i över ett år med uppehållstillstånd.

De misstänks av tyska riksåklagaren för stämpling till terrorbrott tillsammans med en tysk-marockan som sitter häktad i Tyskland.