Arrest of a Suspected Supporter of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation ‘Islamic State’ (IS) in Connection with Participation in an IS Financing Network

Year of issue 2025
Date 28.01.2025

Today (28 January 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had agents of the Federal Criminal Police Office arrest the

Russian national Zelimkhan D.

in Berlin in execution of an arrest warrant issued by the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice on 16 January 2025.

Zelimkhan D. is suspected of membership in a criminal organisation (section 129a para. 1 sentence 1, para. 5 sentence 3 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]), support of a foreign terrorist organisation (section 129a para. 1 no. 1, para. 5 sentence 1, section 129b para. 1 StGB) as well as violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (section 18 para. 1 no. 1a, para. 7 no. 2 of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act).

In essence, the arrest warrant sets out the following facts:

Zelimkhan D. joined a criminal organisation, which had previously been formed by other individuals, no later than August 2022 (see Press Releases No. 41 and No. 43 of 25 July and 1 August 2024). Said organisation’s objective was to collect funds for the foreign terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’ in Germany and in other European countries. The donations were collected in particular through social media and sent to members of the ‘Islamic State’ abroad, partially via intermediaries. Female members of the ‘Islamic State’ in Kurdish prison camps and fighters were the primary beneficiaries of these funds.

Zelimkhan D. organised donation campaigns, particularly in the Berlin area. He temporarily managed one of the joint donation boxes. Accordingly, he participated in several transactions to the benefit of IS, totalling more than € 60,000.

The suspect will be brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice today (28 January 2025) who will be reading out the arrest warrants to him.