Terror confession
June 9, 2009
During Tuesday’s hearing, Adem Yilmaz, a Turkish national who grew up in Germany told presiding judge Ottmar Breidling that he was prepared to make a confession.
"I don't care whether you give me 20 or 30 years,” Yilmaz said. “I just want this finished with, it's boring.”
Yilmaz said he wanted a meeting with the other three members of the German-based Islamic militant “Sauerland Group” before he came clean. The three men, two of whom are German converts to Islam, agreed to meet Yilmaz without their lawyers present.
Breidling endorsed the meeting between the defendants, who are held in separate correctional facilities and are not normally allowed any contact with one another. But the judge insisted it take place under the watchful eye of the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation.
“They should not have the opportunity to discuss their plea,” he said of the men who have so far failed to co-operate with police or answer his questions during 14 days in court.
German terror cell
The men allegedly formed their terror cell for the Islamic Jihad Union and stand accused of plotting to plant bombs in bars, discos and US bases in a bid to kill as many US citizens as possible.
But in September 2007, after a tip-off from the US secret service and following months of surveillance, three members of the “Sauerland Group” were caught while using a holiday cottage in the rural Sauerland region from which they take their name.
Authorities also seized 26 detonators and 12 drums of hydrogen peroxide, which could have had devastating consequences had it been used. A fourth man was arrested in Turkey two months later -- they all went on trial together in April 2009.
If convicted, the suspected terrorists could face up to 15 years behind bars.
tkw/nk/dpa/AFP
Editor: Sonia Phalnikar