Ahmad Abdulaziz Abdullah Abdullah (born 1984), better known as Abu Walaa, is an Islamic

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach components such as ...

based in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...

, Germany. In 2016 he was arrested for supporting terrorism.

Biography

Born in al-Tamim, Iraq, he immigrated to Germany in 2001. He preached at the ''Deutschsprachiger Islamkreis Hildesheim e. V.'' (DIK)

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

founded in 2012, and took part as a speaker in a great number of Salafi events due to his popularity through his online video releases and his Facebook followers. He became known as a "preacher without face" (german: Prediger ohne Gesicht), because in many of his videos, his face would be hidden from the camera.Spiegel: Festnahme von "Abu Walaa" - Polizei stellt den "Prediger ohne Gesicht"

Arrest

On the morning of November 8, 2016, the German police arrested Abu Walaa in

Bad Salzdetfurth is a town on the banks of the River Lamme in the district of Hildesheim, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Geography The municipality includes the town itself, and 12 civil parishes (''Ortsteile'') which were incorporated in 1974: * Bodenburg * Brein ...

alongside four suspected accomplices in Hildesheim and

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

accused of supporting a foreign terrorist organization according to article 129b of the

German Penal Code ''Strafgesetzbuch'' (), abbreviated to ''StGB'', is the German penal code. History In Germany the ''Strafgesetzbuch'' goes back to the Penal Code of the German Empire passed in the year 1871 on May 15 in Reichstag which was largely identica ...

. He is suspected of being the head of an Islamic group, recruiting young Muslims in Germany to fight for jihad in Syria and Iraq for the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

(ISIL or ISIS). The German authorities had long been investigating his activities. Based on testimony by Turkish-German Anil O., a young man fighting in Syria and arrested upon his return to Germany, the German prosecutor's office demanded Abu Walaa's arrest after Anil O. admitted he was influenced by Abu Walaa at his Hildesheim mosque for jihad.

Conviction

Abu Walaa was convicted of support and membership in a terrorist organisation on 24 February 2021 by the Oberlandesgericht in Celle. He was sentenced to 10,5 years in prison."IS-Chefanwerber in Deutschland zu zehneinhalb Jahren Haft verurteilt"
Die Welt 23´4 February 2021

References

{{reflist 1984 births Living people People from Hildesheim Iraqi emigrants to Germany Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Germany Islamic terrorism in Germany