Head of Islamic State Terror Cell Was Approached By Swiss Government to Work With Migrants

Terror
Peter Macdiarmid/Getty

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor’s Office (BA) has claimed that an Iraqi migrant named Osamah M. who was found guilty of heading an Islamic state terror cell in Schaffhausen, Switzerland was approached by authorities to take care of asylum seekers.

Paraplegic Osamah M. was charged by Swiss prosecutors with aiding the Islamic State terror group and plotting a terrorist attack alongside three other Iraqi migrants. While he was sentenced to four years and eight months in March of 2016, he was later released earlier this year after an appeals court found his sentence too harsh, Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten reports.

Now, a new report shows that Osamah M. was approached to work with newly arrived asylum seekers because authorities at the time believed he had a good grasp of Arabic and German.

Journalist and jihadism expert Kurt Pelda said, “If that had happened, it would probably have been a disaster,” and called Osamah M., “pure Islamic state.”

Pelda claimed also to have read some of the chats between the terror cell leader and the other jihadists saying, “they are evil.”

Andi Kunz, Head of Asylum and Refugee Support for the Cantonal Socialist Office of Schaffhausen denies that anyone approached the jihadist. “Osamah M. has come to us with the desire to support refugees in the language courses,” he said  and added, ” he wanted to receive assignments and give tutoring.”

According to Mr Kunz, the office rejected the offer from the terrorist though others have claimed that an agency from the Swiss capital of Bern had told them not to allow the terrorist near asylum seekers.

In 2015 Jean-Paul Rouiller, the creator of the counterterrorism unit of the Swiss Federal Judicial Police (PJF) called the terror situation in Switzerland “unprecedented.”

“One thing is clear. Switzerland and especially Geneva is threatened. And this threat is related to the Islamic State group,” he said.

Late last year the situation seemed to be getting even worse with Swiss authorities saying they had over 480 jihadists under active investigation for terror links, up from 200 in 2014.

In Germany, authorities have also become concerned with attempts by radical Islamists to recruit migrants and failed asylum seekers. One failed asylum seeker, Tunisian Anis Amri, was recruited by the Islamic State and carried out a terror attack last December in Berlin killing a dozen people and injuring more than 50 others.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com 

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.