A German newspaper has reported further details on the ongoing investigation of financial crimes alleged to have been committed by leaders of the German Muslim Brotherhood. According to the translated report:
Ahmad al-Khalifa, eloquent preacher and head of the mosque in the Munich neighborhood of Freimann appeared rather monosyllabic Tuesday. Police and prosecutors arrived at his house and mosque and three other places in Munich and Garching at 6AM. The investigation is focused on Ahmad al-Khalifa and six other defendants, including the chairman of the Islamic Congregations in Germany (IGD), Ibrahim el Zayat. [ed.: the organization is related to the Muslim Brotherhood]. They are suspected of having contacts with Islamic terrorism. Special units of the police stormed in total 14 targets yesterday in Munich, Garching, Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Belgium, including prayer rooms, mosques and numerous offices and homes. A police spokesperson says that extensive evidence was seized. The police did not give out names and addresses in the ongoing investigation. Ahmad al-Khalifa confirmed to Abendzeitung that the investigators were also by him and searched both his mosque and home. Ahmad von Dennffer, a Munich resident who was born in Aachen and converted to Islam, is also among the suspects. A third Munich resident is active in the Islamic youth organizations. None of the suspects were arrested yesterday. The men are suspected also of diverting funds from failed mosque building projects to their organization and misusing it for Islamic purposes. They are also suspected of obtaining school subsidies by fraud, forging bankruptcies and purchasing land through fraud.
As a post from yesterday reported, searches were also carried out in Belgium and possibly in Austria. That post also provided background information on Ibrahim El-Zayat and Ayman Aly, the likely Austrian suspect. In addition to their roles as leaders in the German Muslim Brotherhood, both men are important officers in the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella organization for the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe.
Ahmed Al-Khalifa has been a general-secretary of the Islamische Gemeinschaft in Deutschland e.V. (IGD), a FIOE member organization headed by Mr. El-Zayat. As the newspaper notes, Mr. Al-Khalifa is also a leader of the Islamisches Zentrum München (IZM) sometimes referred to as the Freimann Mosque, which has close relations with the IGD and where the current Supreme Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood served as chief imam several years in the 1980s.
Ahmad von Dennffer (aka von Denffer) is also a leader at the IZM as well as a Trustee of Muslim Aid, a U.K charity that is part of the charity coalition known as the Union of Good headed by global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. As reported yesterday, sources in Germany say that the Belgian aspect of the investigation involves Al-Aqsa Belgium, the Union of Good member in that country. The Union of Good was recently designated by the U.S. as raising funds for Hamas.
For the original report in German, go here.