TIRANA, Albania (AP) - A 24-year-old man wanted in Germany for allegedly belonging to a cell that planned attacks on behalf of the Islamic State group has been arrested in Albania, police said Thursday.
Albanian police said the suspect, a citizen of Tajikistan identified only as K.Z., was arrested on an international warrant issued by a federal court in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Police said in a statement that the man is accused of being part of a terror group that has “founded a terror cell in Germany to make Jihad on behalf of the Islamic State.”
The statement did not say why the suspect was in Albania.
Albanian police and prosecutors are preparing the paperwork for his extradition to Germany, where he faces a charge of “participation in a foreign terror organization.”
Earlier this month, four other Tajiks suspected of being members of IS were arrested in Germany on the same charge. German authorities said they joined the Islamic State group in January 2019, received instructions to form a cell in Germany and were planning an attack on American military facilities.
A 30-year-old thought to be their leader, Ravsan B., has been in jailed in Germany since March 2019 on unspecified charges. German authorities allege that to finance an attack, he accepted a $40,000 contract to assassinate someone in Albania, but the slaying plan failed.
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