Overview
- Authorities carried out searches in Dresden and Königstein on Friday and detained two Iraqi men, aged 27 and 33, who were presented to an investigative judge and placed in pretrial custody.
- Prosecutors accuse the men of fighting for the Islamic State in Iraq between 2016 and 2017 and say they received monthly payments for that service.
- Police seized mobile phones, a laptop and identity papers during the searches and said forensic analysis of the devices is ongoing to recover evidence.
- A spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office said the alleged crimes took place in Iraq and that available information indicates the men entered Germany after those acts, but exact arrival dates remain under investigation.
- The arrests are part of a wider Saxony operation targeting suspected former IS fighters, involving the state criminal police and specialized counterterror units, and could lead to prosecutions under Germany’s law on membership in foreign terrorist organizations.