Traces of Terrorism (eBook)

Instead of an introduction

Berlin, Breitscheidplatz, December 19, 2016

Agrey and cloudy day in Berlin. A light wind is blowing, but there is no rain, and the maximum temperature of the day amounts to 5° centigrade. On this day one of the most horrible and fatal acts of terror ever committed in Germany is carried out. 12 people die and 55 persons are partly severely injured, when a heavy truck drives into the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz right through the crowd of visitors and destroys a number of kiosks.

Even after four years' work of a committee of inquiry the incidents have not been fully clarified: There are still more open questions than convening answers. How is it possible that the Tunisian Anis Amri, a person classified as "dangerous" by the authorities, is able to carry out this attempt and manages to leave the scene of the crime without being arrested?

The assassin, the Tunisian Anis Amri, came to Lampedusa in a boat with other refugees as a result of the "Arab Spring". On April 5, 2011, he was registered by the police in Sicily, declaring a false age, however. After setting fire to a home with other asylum seekers to protest against the rations, he was sentenced to four years of prison in October 2011; during these years he became radicalized. He was released from prison on June 17th, 2015, but could not be deported to Tunisia due to a lack of papers: however, he had to leave Italy within a week. Illegally, he initially stayed in Switzerland, where – it is suspected – he made contact with Salafists with links to Hildesheim. During the so-called refugee crisis, he moved to the Federal Republic in July 2015 and registered in Freiburg under the name Amir, not Amri.

Due to this misspelling, the Italians' warning that he was a violent offender could not be found in the computer. On July 28, he received the certificate as an asylum seeker (BÜMA), but despite this, he continued to register as an asylum seeker in various cities in the Ruhr region, as well as in Berlin, using different names. In the end, the Kleve Foreigners Authority was responsible and sent him to the Emmerich refugee shelter as "Mohammed Hassa".

In October 2015, the Kleve Foreigners Authority informed the police of a report by one of Mohammed Hassa's – alias Amri's – roommates that his cell phone contained photos of men dressed in black and armed with Kalashnikovs. The police then initiated an "Islamism" investigation, but did not connect "Mohammed Hassa" with Amri. Amri had applied for asylum including social benefits in Germany under various names.

Contact with Salafist network

Shortly after his arrival in Germany, he made contact with the network of Salafist preacher Abu Walaa in Hildesheim. Walaa, who operated through the "Deutschsprachiger Islam-Kreis Hildesheim e.V.," was considered by the security authorities to be a central figure in the IS recruitment network and was classified as a dangerous person in NRW in 2015; the Federal Prosecutor General also investigated him. Amri initially belonged to a group that was training to fight in Syria. However, since attacks in Germany were preferred, Amri also decided to stay there. In November 2015, an informant from the LKA NRW reported that a certain "Anis" wanted to do something in Germany. From December, Amri's telecommunications were monitored until May 26, 2016. According to LKA documents quoted by "NTV" in December 2017, Anis Amri was in personal contact with Abu Walaa. "The Tunisian had been received by the Islamic preacher over Christmas 2015 for a thirty-minute private audience and had an exclusive relationship with the preacher." During his stay in Dortmund from Jan. 22 to Feb. 12, Amri reportedly performed as a prayer leader in several mosques. Police headquarters classified him as a "danger to NRW" in February and he was under covert surveillance since March. However, as he was mainly in Berlin, surveillance was taken over by local authorities there.

Refused asylum request

Under the name "Ahmed Almasri" he applied for asylum in Dortmund on April 28, 2016, and he had to go through the identification process. His asylum application was rejected as unfounded on May 30 of that year. Two months later, he was arrested in Friedrichshafen while trying to travel to Switzerland with a forged passport. Amri wanted to marry a converted Swiss woman to prevent his deportation. He spent a night in Ravensburg Prison and was released the next day – after a consultation with the foreigner's authority...