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German Group Petitions to Confiscate Terrorists' Fees

DPA news agency (nda)December 6, 2008

If al Qaeda terrorists sell their stories for money, the income should be seized to benefit victims' families, according to a petition sent to Germany's parliament.

https://p.dw.com/p/GAml
The group wants terrorists to be banned from making money from miseryImage: Montage DW/AP

The news magazine Focus said Saturday the petition was in the name of the 52 members of the German Alliance on Capital Crimes, which represents relatives of victims.

They lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States and other Islamist attacks in Djerba and Bali, as well as in a 1975 attack in Stockholm by the far-left German terrorist group, the Red Army Faction.

"These wrong-doers should not make money by dramatizing the suffering of their victims," said Bert Simon of the group.

The petition was apparently linked to a stream of interviews given members of the now-dissolved Red Army Faction (RAF) and a feature film released this year, The Baader Meinhof Complex, which depicted their activities.

Focus said the petitioners want the state to be stricter with former terrorists, and prevent them using for profit inside knowledge which they had not yielded up to police investigators or in court.

It said any such income should be confiscated and given to a foundation to support survivors and people bereaved in terrorist attacks.