Sauerland terror trial

The alleged head of the group, Fritz G. was the first of the four accused to begin with his confession on Monday.

"It soon was clear to us, that we had the same goals and wanted to fight for the cause of Jihad," he said in the court. After returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca in 2005, he added, their goal had been to travel via Syria to Iraq to join the Jihad.

Lawyer Volker Brinkmann of the prosecution said ahead of the trial that the suspects had admitted to their goal of "killing as many Americans as possible."

The members of the so-called Sauerland terror cell have been questioned by police for the past four weeks.

Their confessions on Monday were expected to be extensive and reveal what the defendants' lawyers have described as "surprises."

Chief judge Ottmar Breidling said the questioning during the four-week break had revealed an unexpectedly "impressive" range of information. The four alleged terrorists are expected to plead guilty in an effort to speed up the trial and get a reduced sentence.

This is one of the biggest terrorism trials in Germany since those involving the urban guerrillas of the Red Army Faction in the 1970s.

Suspects accused of planning massive attacks

The men allegedly formed their terror cell for the Islamic Jihad Union and stand accused of plotting at least three bomb attacks in German cities targeting US citizens.

Authorities say the group aimed to carry out attacks as deadly as those of September 11, 2001 which killed around 3,000 people in the United States.

Two of the suspects, Fritz G. and Daniel S., aged 29 and 23 respectively, are German converts to Islam. A third suspect, Attila S., is a 24-year-old German citizen of Turkish origin, while 30-year-old Adem Y. is a Turkish national.

The Sauerland cell is named after a western German region where three of the men were apprehended in September 2007 along with 26 detonators and 12 drums of hydrogen peroxide, a substance used in the deadly attacks on London's transport system two years earlier. Attila S. was later caught in Turkey.

If convicted, the suspected terrorists could face up to 15 years in prison.

ai/dpa/AFP
Editor: Chuck Penfold