The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office yesterday, March 18, 2026, had Iraqi national Rakan A. arrested in Leipzig by officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office, on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice on February 25, 2026.
The suspect is strongly suspected of having participated, as a minor with sufficient maturity and as a young adult under German juvenile law (Sections 1, 3, 105 JGG), as a member of a foreign terrorist organization (Section 129a(1) no. 1 of the German Criminal Code in conjunction with Section 129b(1) sentences 1 and 2).
According to the arrest warrant, he is accused in essence of the following:
Rakan A. is alleged to have joined the foreign terrorist organization “Islamic State (IS)” in Iraq no later than the summer of 2016. Until March 2017, he was allegedly deployed in various combat units of the organization.
The suspect was brought before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice today, who informed him of the arrest warrant and ordered that he be held in pre-trial detention.