Germany jails five men for fighting with Somali Shabaab

July 08, 2016 00:04

A German court today sentenced to jail five men for having joined the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab Islamist militant group in Somalia.

A sixth man who was jailed and tortured for months by the Shabaab on suspicion of being a Western spy received a suspended sentence.

The five main accused, all German citizens, received prison terms of between three-and-a-half and five years for membership of a foreign terrorist group, by the Frankfurt higher regional court.

They were identified only as Somali-origin brothers Abdullah, Abdulsalam and Abdiwahid W, the brother-in-law of one of them, Steven N, and a German-Tunisian friend, Mounir T.

The men, from the former German capital of Bonn, had travelled to Kenya in 2012 and then on to Somalia the following year, some taking their wives and children along.

After several months of combat training, the men most aged in their 20s, served for between 13 and 18 months on various Shabaab bases and combat positions, the court said in a statement.

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