It is estimated that over 27,000 Muslims from all over the world went to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State. Many are now returning to their home countries, but according to a December 2015 report by the Soufan Group, “obstacles to evidence gathering have made prosecution attempts increasingly problematic.”
“We often have the impression that these people were not just in Syria as sentries or to be trained in the use of weapons but that they took part in maimings, killings and bomb attacks,” German Attorney General Peter Frank said….We assume that these perpetrators have blood on their hands, but we often can’t prove it.
Back in September, three suspected Islamic State fighters were detained in Germany and believed to be the first group of foreign fighters taken into custody. Police also arrested five individuals for their allegiance to the Islamic State in November:
A group of suspected Isis supporters accused of radicalising people and sending them to fight in Syria have been arrested in Germany.
The German federal prosecutor’s office said the five men were part of a “national Salafist-jihadi network” suspected of supporting Isis.
“German Prosecutors Charge Man with Islamic State Membership”, Breitbart, March 16, 2017:
Federal prosecutors say they have charged a 23-year-old German man with membership in a terrorist organization for joining the Islamic State group in Syria.
In a statement Thursday, prosecutors said Anil O. traveled to Syria in August 2015 with the intention of working as a medic for the group.
Prosecutors said O., whose last name wasn’t published due to German privacy law, soon became disillusioned with IS after seeing how it treated fellow Muslims.
They said he tried several times to flee IS-held territory, succeeding in January. He returned to Germany in September last year….