Germany Accuses Iraqi of Aiding Al Qaeda on Internet

An Iraqi man suspected of spreading messages by Al Qaeda leaders on the Internet in the last year was arrested Tuesday in Germany, prosecutors said.

The 36-year-old, identified only as Ibrahim R., was arrested near the western city of Osnabrueck, and his apartment was searched, the prosecutors said.

He was accused of spreading audio and video messages by leaders of Al Qaeda and Al Qaeda in Iraq from his home “in several cases since Sept. 24, 2005,” and “in doing so of having supported these groups in their terrorist activities and aims.”

The prosecutors said the messages were from Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman Zawahiri and former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike north of Baghdad in June.

Prosecutors did not elaborate on the man’s alleged activities. It was unclear whether he was suspected of posting the messages on the Web or of having circulated messages already online, and there also was no word on whether he acted alone.

Prosecutors gave no details of the contents of the messages.

The top security official in Lower Saxony state, Uwe Schuenemann, said the man had been under observation for a year because he had been accused of involvement in another crime, of which he gave no details.