Man arrested in Germany after ‘terrorism’ expulsion from Turkey

A man who was expelled with his family from Turkey to Germany over suspected connections to Islamist terrorism has been arrested, Berlin city authorities said Friday.

The father in a family of seven, expelled by Turkey Thursday, was taken into custody on arrival as he was the subject of an active arrest warrant, a spokesman for the city-state’s interior ministry said.

Turkish authorities said this week they planned to expel a number of foreign jihadists and suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group, including Germans.

They allege that the family was connected to IS and had planned to travel to Syria after arriving in Turkey earlier this year, before they were arrested and placed in custody awaiting deportation.

But a spokesman for the German federal interior ministry said he was not aware of any ties to IS.

Before travelling to Turkey in early 2019, some of the family members were known in their north German hometown of Hildesheim for being active in Salafist, or Islamic fundamentalist circles.

Prosecutors in Hildesheim told news agency DPA that the extradited man was arrested on suspicion of repeated fraud.

A court issued an arrest warrant for him in June linked to six suspected fraud cases, adding six more to the list in August.

He is suspected of having swindled refugees and asylum seekers out of money, claiming to be a lawyer or to be acting for a lawyer who could help them secure asylum or German passports.

But he left Germany before the arrest warrant was issued. Prosecutors believe he wanted to escape a possible trial.