When issuing warrants for 13 foreigners, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, who lived or lived in previous years in Hellasconducted her hitherto unknown research Antiterrorist to fund it Jihad and specifically his Islamic State. According to the information he gives “K” in the spotlightThe undercover operation began in 2018 in cooperation with the anti-terror prosecutor’s office in Paris, and the first of the pending warrants was executed on New Year’s Day 2022 with the arrest of a Spaniard of Syrian origin in downtown Athens.

Abdulsalam, 36, has been living in Greece for more than a decade and remained in detention in the pre-trial detention centers of the GADA and the Athens Sub-Directorate of Security until his trial, on June 1, 2022, before being taken to Korydallos prison. In the end, a three-judge Court of Criminal Appeals found him not guilty on charges of funding him. terrorism. Orders for the remaining 12 foreigners remain outstanding to this day.

Meeting in The Hague

The case began to unfold in November 2018 with a meeting of officials from 14 EU member states at the Eurojust headquarters in The Hague. The topic of this closed meeting was the coordination of a joint investigation into the financing of international terrorism. In fact, it was a continuation of the investigation launched after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels and Cannes in 2015-2016.

in court documents, brought to the attention of “K” it is reported, among other things, that “the existence of financial flows to Syria, through Turkey and Lebanon, and the identification of individuals who collected money in order to end up in the hands of foreign fighters in Syria, were revealed.”

It is not difficult to understand that the central role in the study was played by Department of Internal Security of the French Ministry of the Interior, and its management told the Greek police that 1% of all suspicious financial transactions took place in Greece. That’s 14 transactions with 13 foreign senders. Among them is Abdulsalam, the holder of a Spanish passport, originally from the Syrian city of Raqqa, a stronghold of the Islamic State.

The covert operation began in 2018 and resulted in the issuance of warrants for 13 foreigners, mostly Syrians and Iraqis.

From an anti-terrorism investigation into private money transfer companies and the Greek post office, it emerged that a 36-year-old man sent 13,500 euros to Germany, Serbia, Turkey, Austria and the Netherlands between 2014 and 2015, while he received a total of 5,300 euros from the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

One of these transactions had a criminal investigation interest, as a result of which he was accused of financing terrorism. This included sending 829 euros to a person named Mohammad A. who was in Turkey. And this is because Mohammad allegedly, in turn, was an intermediary in the transfer of money between the French, who left their homeland and went to Syria to join the Islamic State. In November 2016, for example, a 42-year-old French woman sent him 820 euros to give to her sister, one of the so-called “brides of jihad”, who had left Paris and was traveling with her son. Enzo under the control of I.K. territory of Syria.

“collectors”

The data for the remaining 12 foreigners are similar. One of them, a 34-year-old Syrian citizen, was issued a warrant and remains outstanding because he was the middleman in the transfer of 1,000 euros from a 70-year-old French woman to her son, who had fought in the Islamic State since 2013 and at least , Until recently. Abdulsalam, the only person arrested so far of 13 foreigners prosecuted, denies any ties to the Islamic State. He explained his involvement in the case by the fact that he carried out specific operations solely for the purpose of servicing Syrian refugees who arrived in Greece without documents. He also has a Spanish passport.

However, in official documents, prosecutors and the judiciary use the term “collectors” to describe those who collected money, mainly from EU countries, to help foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, European citizens who left their countries to settle in the self-declared caliphate.

“The fact that a collector at some point received money from a relative involved in terrorism does not automatically mean that anyone who sends money to a collector is involved in terrorism in any way,” defense attorney Maria Amari said in her memorandum. . to the Court of Appeal for Criminal Cases, composed of three members of 36-year-old Abdulsalam. The latter was released immediately after the verdict of the court found him not guilty, while the remaining 12 warrants remain in force, and several persecuted foreigners have already left Greece for Germany and France.