to comment on the matter is out of the office,” an official said on phone. The following year 2019, Aydin made four more trips to Kenya while last year he made two trips. This year, he has made six trips to Kenya originating from Instanbul, Cairo and Addis Ababa.
According to reports, Aydin who holds passport number U20470175, had previously been arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, in October 2001 on charges of “having planned serious acts of violence as a member of a terrorist group with an Islamic fundamentalist background”.
During the arrest, Aydin then aged 29, was a student who had been living in Germany.
According to The New York Times and other media houses, a Frankfurt court described Aydin as a leading member of a militant group based in Cologne and led by Muhammed Metin Kaplan. Kaplan’s group of 1,300 people, most of them Turkish, is known as the Federation of Islamic Associations and Communities.
Aydin was charged with having planned serious acts of violence as a member of a terrorist group with an Islamic fundamentalist background. He was found with luggage containing camouflage clothing, a chemical-weapons protection suit, a ski mask and materials to produce an explosive detonator.
Holy warriors
Investigators also found in his luggage were CD-ROM with a training video for Islamic holy warriors, a suicide note to his wife and a last testament, according to a local newspaper based in Cologne, Germany.
He was also accused of giving instructions for serious crimes such as murder and manslaughter in several incidences.
His lawyer, however, said he was flying to Tehran (Iran) for a book fair and had agreed to take a suitcase for another Turkish passenger with excess luggage.
It is one of the religious-based organisations that is likely to be banned as soon as a new German law goes into effect that will remove the constitutional protection for hate speech provided to faith-based organisations.
Before the arrest, Aydin had been sentenced to four years in jail after he was found guilty of advocating the murder of a rival, Halil Ibrahim Sofu, but was later acquitted.
Yesterday, Kapsaret MP Sudi, who was among the MPs briefly detained at the Wilson airport before being allowed to travel to Kampala, described Aydin as a Turkish investor interested in modern fruit farming and not a terrorist as alleged in media reports.
“If anyone is in doubt about the details of Harun then they can visit the Turkish Embassy for more information,” Sudi wrote on Facebook. He added: “Museveni is not a kid to deal with someone of questionable repute, you can use your diplomatic connection and inquire from Ssebo (Museveni) himself the kind of interest the businessman has in Uganda.”
By PD.co.ke
