The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has arrested a suspected IS supporter in North Rhine-Westphalia. The suspect was arrested on Friday at Cologne/Bonn Airport, a spokesman for the Karlsruhe authority said on Saturday when asked. The investigators accuse the man, who has German-Moroccan-Polish nationality, of having transferred a total of almost 1,700 US dollars to an account of the terrorist organization Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISPK) via a cryptocurrency exchange in September 2023.
The suspect is reportedly being investigated on suspicion of supporting a terrorist organization abroad and violating foreign trade law. The subject of the arrest warrant is the money payments, said the spokesman. The suspected terrorist supporter has been in custody since Friday evening.
The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported on the case – and also on a connection to the upcoming European Football Championship in Germany. The spokesman for the Federal Prosecutor’s Office did not want to comment on the report. A statement is planned for the beginning of the week.
According to dpa information, the man applied to work as a steward and security guard for so-called side events outside of football stadiums, including public viewings. He failed the application check, which every applicant goes through, according to security sources.