Italian investigator says terror suspect in Germany linked to cell in Italy By STEPHEN GRAHAM Associated Press Writer MUNICH, Germany An Italian investigator told a German court Tuesday that a Munich-based Iraqi accused of supplying money and Islamic radicals to fight in Iraq had "close" contacts with suspects in similar trials in Italy.
Guido Salvini, an investigating magistrate from Milan, gave expert testimony to a Munich state court about the militant group Ansar-al-Islam during proceedings against Amin Lokman Mohamed, charged by German authorities with membership of a terrorist organization. Salvini's testimony drew on his questioning of two suspected members of the organization in northern Italy. A group of suspects living in the Italian city of Parma was visited by Mohamed and three others in March 2003, Salvini said, and the Parma group later approached Lokman to help them send money to Iraq. "The contacts were close," he said. Police found Ansar-al-Islam propaganda such as videotapes and literature in the house used by the Parma group, he said. Salvini said the Italian group wanted to send the money _ euro1,500 (US$1,810 at current rates), according to German prosecutors _ to a man already in a militant training camp in Iraq. Asked by the judge whether a suspect in Italy named Mohammed Tahir Hammid said whether Lokman was a member of Ansar al-Islam, Salvini said Hammid "thought Lokman ... joined this group, but wasn't sure." German prosecutors say Mohamed collected money at mosques and homes and arranged to bring wounded fighters from Iraq to Europe for medical treatment. They suspect him of serving as the head of the group's Munich cell. Mohamed, who did not speak in court on Tuesday, has acknowledged smuggling people in and out of Germany but denies it had anything to do with Ansar al-Islam. Mohamed was arrested in Munich's main train station in December 2003 and became the first person charged under a post-Sept. 11 law that allowed authorities here to prosecute members of foreign-based militant groups active on German soil. Ansar al-Islam was formed in the Kurdish parts of northern Iraq and is believed to include Arab al-Qaida members who fled the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2002. The Islamic fundamentalist group is suspected of links to al-Qaida and is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. Ansar al-Islam is also suspected in suicide bombings against coalition forces in Iraq. Its bases along the Iranian-Iraqi border were bombed at the start of the Iraq war and the group's members scattered, some to Europe. 050726 182305 Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. FAIR USE NOTICE: All original content and/or articles and graphics in this message are copyrighted, unless specifically noted otherwise. All rights to these copyrighted items are reserved. Articles and graphics have been placed within for educational and discussion purposes only, in compliance with "Fair Use" criteria established in Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. The principle of "Fair Use" was established as law by Section 107 of The Copyright Act of 1976. 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