Germany Muslim Cleric Hate
German
official wants to tag Islamic militants
Wed Dec 28,
2005 10:43 AM GMT
BERLIN (Reuters) - Known Islamic militants should be electronically tagged so their movements can be tracked, a regional German interior minister proposed on Wednesday.
"This would allow us to monitor the roughly 3,000 Islamists who are prone to violence, hate preachers and fighters trained in terrorist camps," Lower Saxony Interior Minister Uwe Schuenemann said in an interview with Die Welt newspaper.
"Hate preachers" is how Germans describe radical Muslim clerics.
Schuenemann said electronic tagging was a viable alternative to holding suspected militants in protective custody, a proposal floated by former German interior minister Otto Schily. It would not be against Germany's constitution, he was quoted as saying.
"It's practical for all Islamists who are prone to violence and who we can't expel to their home countries because they could be tortured," said Schuenemann. Germany's federal and state governments share responsibility for security services.
Under Germany's federal system, states have a great deal of control over their internal security operations and routine policing.
London also proposed electronic tagging of terror suspects in July as an alternative to jailing them without charge.
Electronic tagging of criminals has become widespread in Britain where much of the work being outsourced to private companies such as Serco Group.
A Hamburg, Germany-based cell of al Qaeda was responsible for the planning and execution of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in the United States.
Since those attacks, Germany has cracked down on Muslim extremists living in the country and has had a number of high-profile trials of radical Islamists.