Abbas R. finds it hard to stay calm. He slips around on the dock and looks through the gap in the bulletproof glass again and again the contact with his lawyers. Abbas R. has since Thursday in Berlin before the State Security Senate of the Court of Appeal responsible. Opposite him, on the other side of the hall 700, sits his father, Raad A. - he too in the dock, he also behind bulletproof glass, he too because of suspicion of terrorism. The two Iraqis are said to have participated in war crimes of the terrorist organization "Islamic State", IS for short. The father is also accused of having planned an attack on the Berlin subway.

When the representative of the Federal Prosecutor's Office charges the prosecution that Raad A. was in the Iraqi city of Mosul "the Minister of Finance" of the IS and as a so-called Emir, so leader, an IS Ortsgruppe occurred, laughs his son amused. Raad A. laughs too. The defendants deny any proximity to the IS. In fact, the matter may be more complicated than the prosecution suggests.

In the opinion of the Federal Prosecutor's Office, father and son joined the IS in Mosul at the latest in June 2014. The now 43-year-old Raad A. is said to have collected funds for the terrorist organization and been involved in arms deals with other IS supporters. His son Abbas is said to have patrolled Mosul armed and helped transport the bodies of two murdered Shiite women. Both father and son were allegedly involved in the execution of a high-ranking Iraqi civil servant in October 2014.

Insulted, spit on, executed - but who was there?

There is a video of the execution. But the IS members that are seen are masked. That one of them is Raad A., can not say on the basis of the video alone, outside the hall and Hannes Meyer-Wieck, representative of the Federal Prosecutor, say. At least Abbas R., the son, but should be clearly visible. The video proves how Abbas R. treated the man shortly before his execution "seriously degrading and humiliating," Meyer-Wieck before the court in his indictment before. Abbas R. had the man insulted as "dog", "dog son" and "jerk" and spit on him. Shortly thereafter, the man was murdered with several shots in the back of the head.

In court, the defendants are silent on the first day of the trial, in the preliminary investigation they have spoken. Abbas R. said at the time that he had been forced by IS members to humiliate the man. Voluntarily, he did not participate in the execution. Abbas R. was probably 14 or 15 years old at the time of the crime. Raad A. wants to have been somewhere else that day, he had not been involved in the killing of the man, he asserted.

In July 2015, father and son, along with their mother and other children, came to Germany as refugees. According to the indictment, in December 2016 the father tried unsuccessfully to incite a man to a suicide attack in the Berlin subway.

The defense rejects the terror allegations. "My client has always proven that he has nothing, nothing at all, and nothing to do with the IS," says Raad As defender, Walter Venedey, at the beginning of the trial. The Federal Prosecutor's Office lacked objective evidence to support its indictment of the claims of Iraqi refugees without considering that these witnesses may have their own interests.

My uncle, Minister under Saddam

It is "naive" to believe, Venedey says in court, that the civil war in Iraq and its consequences have nothing to do with the trial. The witnesses may have suffered under the regime of Saddam Hussein, the regime to which his client belongs. Maybe the witnesses are simply going to settle old bills with false accusations, Venedey will say later on the sidelines of the trial.

Raad A. himself only gives information about himself on this day. Asked by the presiding judge about his job, he says his father was a "leading figure" under Saddam Hussein in the Baath Party and his uncle was a "minister." Venedey interrupts the speech of his client and reminds him of the judge's question. "I took over the job of my grandfather," says Raad A. finally: "goldsmith."

At least the case with Anis Amri seems to believe the federal prosecutor no longer. Witnesses had told the investigating authorities allegedly acquaintance Raad As with the Berlin assassin. Raad A. is said to have met with Amri, just before this drove on 19 December 2016 in a truck on the Christmas market in Berlin at the Memorial Church Amok.

"Evidence of contact with Anis Amri have not substantiated," says Meyer-Wieck on demand outside the hall. The credibility of the witnesses does not question the Federal Prosecutor's Office. Another court has already had some bad experiences with some of these witnesses.

Raad A. and Abbas R. were arrested in May 2017 in Berlin, since then they are in custody. When she was arrested, it was not about terror but about drugs. The Attorney General's Office filed charges against father and son and other men for acting with cocaine, ecstasy, marihuana and hashish. The trial before the district court ended in May 2018 with an acquittal for Raad A. and Abbas R., a co-defendant was convicted. Already at that time, witnesses played a role, which the two defendants now also burden in the terrorist process.

Abbas R. and Raad A. remained in custody despite being acquitted. Now they are charged as suspected IS terrorists. The Senate of the Supreme Court has so far scheduled 21 days of negotiations.