The man, a Muslim convert identified only by the letter S, is being
held in investigative custody while authorities check his suspected role
in radicalising and recruiting young people to fight with Islamic State
in Syria and Iraq, the report said.
Swiss authorities detain suspected Islamist leader - TV
Swiss authorities have taken a suspected Islamist
leader into custody, broadcaster SRF reported on Wednesday, calling it
the first arrest of a senior figure from a Salafist ring based in the
northern city of Winterthur.
The
man, a Muslim convert identified only by the letter S, is being held in
investigative custody while authorities check his suspected role in
radicalising and recruiting young people to fight with Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the report said.
Federal prosecutors would not confirm the report. In a statement, they said that SRF
had not respected a request to delay its report by a few weeks to avoid
jeopardising "an open criminal investigation surrounding jihadist-motivated terrorism".
After
deadly jihadist attacks in France and Belgium, Swiss authorities are
monitoring the social media activity of about 400 possible jihadists who
might pose a security threat, the NDB federal intelligence service said last month.
Neutral Switzerland
is not a primary target for Islamist attacks because it is not part of
the military campaign against groups such as Islamic State, but the
security threat level has been elevated nonetheless, the NDB's annual
report said.
Authorities have been closely tracking suspected jihadists who return to Switzerland from countries, Syria in particular, where they are believed to get training in carrying out attacks.
Swiss authorities believe more than 70 people have travelled to the Middle East to become jihadist fighters since 2001.
A
Swiss court in April sentenced three Iraqis for terrorism offences, a
verdict that the senior prosecutor said should send a message to
jihadists not to see the country as an easy target.
The
three main defendants, who had denied wrongdoing, were arrested in
early 2014 on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks and helping
Islamic State militants enter the country.
Switzerland
said last month it was seeking to revoke the citizenship of a
19-year-old Swiss-Italian man identified by a former employer as a
suspected jihadist who travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
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