Man on trial in Germany over 2009 al-Qaeda video threats

Jan 25, 2012, 19:12 GMT

Berlin - A man alleged to have threatened Germany in 2009 by appearing, masked, in an al-Qaeda-style video hinting that the Munich Oktoberfest could be a terrorist target, went on trial in Berlin on Wednesday.

Defence lawyers argued, however, that the state would not be able to prove that the 26-year-old defendant was indeed Ayyub H, chief of the German Taliban Mujahedin, who threatened to harm his homeland in a 13-minute German-language video.

'Germany is at war,' the masked man in the video said, surrounded by guns and apparently speaking from Afghanistan. 'Your mission here against Islam makes a strike on Germany tempting for us mujahedin.'

The defendant, whose name was withheld under media privacy guidelines, declined to testify at the start of the trial, where he is accused of membership of a terrorist group.

Another Muslim, a 22-year-old Austrian, was arraigned with him.

The video, which contained images of Berlin, Frankfurt and the Oktoberfest in Munich, caused alarm at a time when the beer festival with an estimated 6 million visitors was underway, and Germany was in the middle of a general election campaign.

Police with submachine guns patrolled key points for weeks, but nothing happened.

Prosecutors said that in reality, the group had not yet planned any attacks.

The two defendants, who are of Turkish origin, allegedly underwent weapons training with al-Qaeda. Authorities arrested the 26-year-old in Vienna when he returned to Europe and was allegedly trying to raise funds and find recruits.

The German defendant's lawyer, Michael Murat Sertsoez, said outside the courtroom that his client denied being in the mujahedin.

'The evidence is very, very weak,' he said.