now to a verdict in another closely
watched court case here in germany
a notorious iraqi preacher known as abu
wala has been found guilty of supporting
terrorism
and being a member of a terrorist
organization he was viewed as the leader
of the so-called islamic state here in
germany abuela was accused of
radicalizing and recruiting young people
in germany and helping them to travel to
iraq and syria
he has been sentenced to 10 and a half
years in prison the conviction brings an
end to a costly
high security trial
our political correspondent julius
audelli has been following the latest on
this story for us hi julia
so how significant is this case
it is an important case and it has been
an important trial
as uh you've said abu vala was seen as
the point of reference for the islamic
state in germany and a very important
recruiter
across europe he was sentenced to ten
and a half years in prison which is
quite an important
sentencing the prosecution had asked for
11 and a half
years and he has been charged and found
guilty of um
being a member of a terrorist
organization of aiding
the organization of violent acts and of
funding
terrorism and his acts have had
serious consequences people that he has
recruited and radicalized here in
germany have traveled
to iraq and syria including two twins
who traveled to iraq and killed
many people in a suicide attack
and the case has also been linked
with a co-defendant of abu vala who
was said to have housed anes amri he is
the terrorist who killed
12 people in the attack against a
christmas market in berlin in 2006
although there has been no direct
connection with abu vala amri seems to
have been part of his network at least
this has been a pretty complex trial
julia it started three and a half years
ago i mean how difficult was it to
gather
evidence against abuela
it has been hard to find concrete
evidence especially
looking at the toughest accusations
against
voila and the court case has relied
in terms of evidence mostly on the
testimony of two informants
one is a member of the security services
who
was embedded in the network and
collected evidence over the years
and another informant is a former
radicalized person who was radicalized
by abu valla and who
traveled to syria and once he came back
to germany he decided to talk to the
security forces and
tell what the network created by abu
valla was all about
what does this case tell us about the
islamist scene here
in germany i mean how much of a threat
does it still pose
authorities say that the situation is
still serious there is still a serious
threat of islamic terrorism but it has
changed compared to the years
2000 2012 2016
we now don't anymore see a clear
and widely accepted leader of islamist
factions here
in germany and the situation is evolving
now the major threat is um
given by individuals who might be
inspired by terrorist ideologies but
there is not a strong clear network here
in germany
and uh the situation has definitely
changed since 2016
also because of the fall of the
so-called islamic state in syria and
iraq
and because of the action of authorities
here in germany pursuing such
groups our political correspondent julia
saudelli thank you
you