The accused submitted a complete confession to the court in Frankfurt at the outset of his terror trial on Thursday, pleading guilty to charges of membership of the al Qaeda terror network. Rami M., a German of Syrian origin, was given a relatively mild sentence of between four-and-a-half and five years in prison as a result.

The 25-year-old admitted the majority of the charges leveled against him by the opposition, saying only that a few of the details were "hazy."

Rami M. also told the court that he had not been a committed Muslim in his youth, going to parties with his friends and smoking hashish. At the age of 22, he said, he marked the traditional fasting month of Ramadan and began to practice Islam. Over time, he started visiting mosques and becoming more radicalized, partly through internet propaganda videos.

"It became clear to me that I wanted to emigrate," Rami M. told the court. "I didn't fit in in Germany any more."

Seeking to live in a Muslim community, he traveled to Pakistan via Iran.

Trained and arrested in Pakistan

At the start of the trial, prosecutors said they had evidence that Rami M. attended a terrorist training camp while in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan in 2009. They also said that he was subsequently involved in combat against the Pakistani armed forces. He had allegedly planned to return to Germany to raise funds for al Qaeda and be in place to take part in possible future terrorist attacks, but he was arrested by Pakistani security forces last summer before he could travel back to Europe.

Following his arrest and extradition to Germany, Rami M. is believed to have told investigators about planned terror attacks. He is said to have been the source of intelligence that led then-Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere to increase security at Germany's airports, train stations and other plausible terrorist targets in mid-November 2010. At the time, de Maiziere said the Interior Ministry had received intelligence suggesting that an attack was planned for late that month in Germany.

Fund-raising targets

German media report that a senior member of the al Qaeda terror network had taken Rami M. under his wing and had withdrawn him from combat duties last June. Instead, he was to be sent back to Germany to raise "the sum of 20,000 euros ($29,7300) in donations every six months, as well as functioning as a contact," according to prosecutors quoted by the website of the news magazine Stern.

According to the prosecution, Rami M. contacted the German Embassy in Islamabad in order to prepare for his return to Germany. Before he could leave Pakistan, he was arrested. He was flown back to Frankfurt last August and was immediately taken into custody.

Author: Chuck Penfold, Mark Hallam (AFP, AP, dpa)
Editor: Michael Lawton