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Berlin (dpa) - Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) has banned the Salafist association Ansaar International and all offshoots of the Islamist association. His ministry said the ban was enforced early Wednesday morning with searches and seizures in ten federal states. According to initial information, objects and people were also affected in Lower Saxony - where exactly was not initially known. There was no information about this from the state criminal investigation office in Hanover. Berlin, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse were also affected.
To justify the ban, the Interior Ministry said that Ansaar's fundraising was done with the intention of passing them on to terrorist groups abroad, in particular to the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, the Palestinian Hamas and Al-Shabaab in Somalia .
Aid projects are sometimes supported, "which, however, are directly part of the sphere of activity of the respective terrorist organization."
The ministry also believes that the group's proselytizing activities are against the constitutional order.
The starting point for the ban was a large-scale raid on the network in April 2019, during which extensive material was confiscated.
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Ansaar International has its headquarters in Düsseldorf, the sub-organization WWR-Help in Neuss, North Rhine-Westphalia.
About half of the 90 people and objects that were affected at the time were in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The network of associations that have now been banned also includes the Änis Ben-Hatira Foundation named after the German-Tunisian football player, the Somali Committee for Information and Advice in Darmstadt and the Surrounding Area, the women's rights association ANS.Justice, "Ummashop" and Helpstore Secondhand UG as well as Better World Appeal.
The Interior Ministry found that donors had been defrauded by the untrue claim that the funds were used exclusively for humanitarian purposes.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210505-99-472896 / 3
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