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Two
Suspected Iraqi Spies Arrested In Germany
KARLSRUHE, Germany, Mar 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two suspected Iraqi spies were arrested in Germany this week, the office of federal German prosecutor Kay Nehm announced Thursday.
The two, who are suspected of being Iraqi secret service agents, were arrested on Nehm's orders by federal detectives on February 25th and February 27th and were remanded in custody by a federal court judge on February 26th and February 28th, the statement said.
The two men have not been identified.
"The two accused are suspected of having carried out missions on behalf of an Iraqi intelligence agency in various cities in Germany since the beginning of the year 2001," the brief statement said.
CNN reports that the two are being held on "urgent" suspicion of spying in a number of German towns this year, the prosecutors added.
Meanwhile, both suspects were brought before a federal judge who ordered them held on urgent suspicion of spying, CNN adds.
According to the public television network ARD, the two Iraqi suspects were arrested in the southwest German town of Heidelberg.
A spokesman for prosecutors told MSNBC that he could not provide further details because the investigation was continuing.
There has been no indication of the nature of the missions the two were believed to have been carrying out and the prosecutor's office declined to provide any further information on the grounds that this could prejudice the ongoing investigations.
It was thus not known if the spying the two Iraqis are accused of is related to armaments, economic espionage or to political activities.
A spokesman for prosecutors also declined to comment on a German television report that the two had been detained in the southwestern town of Heidelberg, near U.S. Army headquarters in Europe, where the army's Fifth Corps, made up of armored and infantry divisions, are also stationed.
A U.S. Army spokeswoman in Europe had no immediate comment.
A German engineer, Karl-Heinz Schaab, was convicted in 1999 of helping Iraq build a gas ultra-centrifuge for the production of weapons-grade uranium by providing design details belonging to his former employer MAN. For that he was sentenced to five years' jail.
According to a 1999 report of the German domestic intelligence agency, Iraqi agents in Germany seek to spy on Iraqi opposition figures with the aim of learning the place of residence of critics of the regime or officers who have defected.
Such agents also tried to penetrate Iraqi opposition groups, the report said.
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