Judge surprised as four terrorism suspects spill story

Jul 8, 2009, 13:00 GMT

   Dusseldorf - A German judge voiced surprise Wednesday that four young Muslims accused of a terrorist bomb plot have suddenly confessed in extraordinary detail.

Police arrested two German converts to Islam and a third man in 2007 to thwart car bomb attacks on US bases.

The accused only decided last month to tell police everything in a plea bargain.

'Their evidence is much more comprehensive than we expected at the start of the interrogations,' presiding judge Ottmar Breidling told the court as the four accused listened, visibly relaxed.

Observers said the evidence is likely to keenly interest intelligence agencies seeking an insight into how Islamist groups based in Pakistan and Afghanistan mount attacks.

Fritz Gelowicz, Daniel Schneider, Adem Yilmaz and Attila Selek were allegedly members of the Islamic Jihad Union, a shadowy group believed allied to al-Qaeda.

The compilation of testimony would be finished late this week, and was likely to extend to 1,000 pages, which will be read aloud to the court when it resumes hearings on August 10, Breidling said.

   Breidling promised the men a month ago they would receive a 'tangible reduction' in their jail terms as an incentive to confess to police investigators.

A federal prosecutor, Volker Brinkmann, confirmed the men had offered exhaustive details of the plot, calling it the most extensive confession he had seen in his career.

Wednesday's courtroom atmosphere was almost harmonious, as defence lawyers withdrew most of a series of objections designed to hold up the trial and prepared for an agreed settlement of the terrorism charges.

However Breidling rebuked the accused once for switching into Arabic when they spoke to one another.

The accused will no longer have to sit in an armoured-glass cell inside the courtroom when the trial resumes next month, but will be allowed to sit with their lawyers like ordinary criminal defendants.