Inside the Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. Trial #2: On Trial for the Second Time: The Previous Conviction of Twana H.S.

TRIAL OF TWANA H.S. AND ASIA R.A.

Higher Regional Court – Munich, Germany

Trial Monitoring Summary #2

Hearing Date: May 26, 2025

CAUTION: Some testimony may include graphic descriptions of torture, rape or other violent acts.  

Note that this summary is not a verbatim transcript of the trial; it is merely an unofficial summary of the proceedings.  

Throughout this summary, [information located in brackets are notes from our trial monitor] and “information placed in quotes are statements made by the witness, judges or counsel.” The names and identifying information of witnesses have been redacted. 

[Note:  SJAC provides a summary of the proceedings while redacting certain details to protect witness privacy and to preserve the integrity of the trial.]

SJAC’s 2nd trial monitoring report details day 2 of the trial of Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. in Munich, Germany. On this trial day, the Court determined the facts of the previous conviction of Twana H.S. For this purpose, the Court questioned one of the lead investigators at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) of this prior case, Mr. Graupner, W1 and read out the verdict. The testimony and the verdict revealed details pertaining to Twana H.S.’s life before, during, and after his participation in ISIS. The Accused lived an ordinary life after arriving in Germany under a pseudonym in 2002. He met [redacted name], F2, and they had a son together, [redacted name], F3 in [redacted time].  From at least 2004 until 2013 he had a stable relationship with Mrs. [redacted name], F4 and a stable job at her hair salon. After his relationship fell apart in 2013, Twana H.S. was radicalized in a Munich mosque by ISIS members who were later prosecuted in different proceedings.

The Accused left Germany in 2015 and joined ISIS. During the 2019 testimony, the Accused also recounted that he had only been driving an ambulance, in an effort to help the people in Syria. The previous court rejected the credibility of Twana, arguing that he was “flexible with the truth.”  The prior court further determined that Twana H.S. was part of the frontline army of ISIS and participated in their border security efforts (Ribat). Twana H.S. married the Co-Accused, Asia R.A., while with ISIS. They fled Iraq with their daughter in late 2017, reaching Munich, Germany, in May 2018. They used real IDs of Syrian citizens to obtain asylum in Germany. Twana H.S. was arrested for entering Germany illegally and misuse of identity papers. He was tried for and convicted of membership in a foreign terrorist organization according to Sect. 129a & 129b GCC as well as for preparing a serious violent offence endangering the state according to Sect. 89a GCC.

Day 2 – May 26, 2025

The session began with the procedural confirmation of attendance. The Judge commented that the Accused, Twana H.S., looked much better compared to the first trial day [for the details of trial day 1, see Trial Report #1].

After the Judge reiterated the rights and duties to both of the Accused, Twana H.S. spoke up. He claimed that he had never heard the names mentioned before. He said, “You know my name. You have said names I have never heard of before, or know of, I want to see those names first and, of course, I want to say something.” Seemingly surprised that the Accused voluntarily testified, the Defense Team started whispering and tried to catch his attention. Noticing this, the Judge asked Twana H.S. whether he would like to consult with them. Twana turned around and talked vividly to his Defense Team. After one minute, the Court suggested Twana H.S. and this Defense continue during the lunch break, to which they all agreed. The Court then called the first witness, Chief Superintendent (Kriminalhauptkommissar) at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Peter Graupner, W1, who led the investigation of Twana H.S. in the previous case.

Following the clarification of the witness’s identity and role, the Judges started questioning the officer regarding Twana’s personal circumstances during his time in Germany, prior to leaving for Syria via Turkey to join ISIS. According to the witness, Twana H.S. had entered Germany in 2002 using false names and different spellings of several names. The Court mentioned the aliases “Abdullah Emad عبد الله عماد” and “Imad”. Twana began the immigration process in that same year. Mr. Graupner explained that the Accused met [redacted name], F2, in 2002 - at the Octoberfest [note: The Octoberfest is a traditional Bavarian folk fest, taking place in Munich every year]. Twana H.S. and F2 had a son, [redacted name] F3, in 2003. At the end of 2002, the Accused presented a false Iraqi ID with the Name Abdullah Emad to the immigration authorities. In 2004, he presented a document proving his Iraqi citizenship under the Name Twana [redacted name]. In 2005, the Accused moved in with Mrs. [redacted name], F4, who was his girlfriend as well as his employer. The two had begun dating in 2003, even though Twana H.S. was still in a relationship with the mother of his son until around 2004. F4 and the Accused broke up around 2013. According to a statement from the prior court case, F4 recalled that Twana H.S. had become increasingly jealous and possessive, which caused their separation.

The police officer further testified that the investigative team had no knowledge of Twana H.S at first. His name surfaced in 2014 in connection with another Iraqi citizen who left Germany to join ISIS. The two had contact one day before the Iraqi man left Germany to become a member of the extremist organization. Additionally, the Accused, Twana H.S., had contact with [redacted name], F5, who also became a member of ISIS and was the “Emir” of an extremist group in Munich. In 2019, he was also prosecuted.

According to Graupner, multiple stories pertaining to Twana H.S.’s flight from Iraq existed. In his asylum application filed in 2002, Twana H.S. claimed that he fled after an altercation in a hairdresser’s shop. Graupner further recalled that Twana H.S. claimed that around the same time his father was killed. Later investigations revealed several conflicting dates for the father’s death. In fact, the father was contacted by the police and personally confirmed he had left Iraq. It remained uncertain whether and when Twana’s father died after this. Twana’s previous statements, however, were false. H.S. received the German residence permit in 2004, due to his son being a minor in need of care. Until 2011, the relationship seemed stable. The Accused paid child support and spent time with his son regularly. The officer recalled that in 2011, Twana stopped paying child support. His son reported that Twana started going to a mosque more regularly in late 2014 – shortly before his departure from Germany. Around the same time, the Accused asked F2 for his son's, F3’s, passport so he could take him on a vacation to Iraq, which F2 rejected. In F2’s statement before the court in the 2019 trial, she expressed relief as she was afraid, he could have taken her son with him to ISIS.

According to Graupner, witnesses later recalled that Twana H.S. had changed in the months before his departure. Three to five months before his departure, the Accused started wearing long pants regularly, grew a long beard, stopped listening to music, stopped smoking, and abandoned the friends he had regularly partied with. Mr. Graupner reported on corroborating statements from a janitor working in Twana H.S.’s apartment building, as well as the men who cleared the Accused’s apartment after he had left Germany. Later, Mr. Graupner specified that those witnesses stated they knew Twana H.S. had left for an Islamist extremist organization but could not remember whether it was Al-Qaida or ISIS.

Graupner also explained that in 2016, the Accused’s residence permit expired because the authorities had determined that the Accused was no longer living in Germany. Twana H.S. had informed the authorities that he wanted to live in Iraq with his son and build a life there. The Accused had allegedly bought an apartment in Iraq, which supported this presumption.

Before his leaving, Twana H.S. was under investigation for financing a terrorist organization, Graupner added. The investigation was discontinued after it had been determined that H.S. had left Germany permanently, explaining that he had left Germany at the end of March 2015. In January and February of that same year, H.S. purchased camouflage balaclavas with his debit card. He also ordered outdoor items through his Amazon account. The items were delivered to the address where Twana H.S. was registered. The police surmised that these could be used as supplies for ISIS and therefore it was possible that Twana H.S. was financing a terrorist organization. The Amazon account, as well as the debit card were used in Germany even after the Accused had left the country. The debit card was later found in the apartment of another ISIS-member's wife and the amazon account was used to deliver other items to the address of this apartment.

Following the investigation, Graupner and his team determined that Twana H.S. had finished an ISIS training in July 2015, mandatory for every new member joining ISIS. The prior court heard an expert witness, Dr. Guido Steinberg, E2, who testified that during this training ISIS keeps the phones of all trainees. In July 2015, Twana H.S. had contact with the wife of another ISIS-member through a messenger service called Surespot. According to the expert, since the Accused must have had access to a phone, with almost certainty, he must have finished his training with ISIS. The investigation also revealed, according to Mr. Graupner, that Twana H.S. left Germany with two individuals, [redacted name], F6, and [redacted name], F7.

When asked what connections Twana H.S. had with the Salafist scene in Germany, Mr. Graupner noted that there were only a few findings. He recalled that Twana H.S. met at a hospital with a person, Hibakutscha, F8, who allegedly later died in an attempted suicide bombing. Upon questioning by the Judges, Graupner explained that F8 prepared the suicide attack, however, was shot before he could detonate the bomb. According to Graupner, before Twana left to join ISIS, he told others in the group of ISIS sympathizers that he was very sad to hear about the suicide attack. He did not know ISIS could force someone to do such things and that he cannot support them [ISIS] because of acts such as suicide bombings. Mr. Graupner then explained that the meeting between Twana H.S. and F8 must have taken place before June 18, 2014, since F8 disappeared from Germany after this day. In another conversation with [redacted name], F9, Twana H.S. said that he felt sorry for Yazidis and Kurds because of ISIS.

Additionally, the investigative team questioned the man who bought Twana’s car when he left Germany. The man stated that Twana H.S. was collecting clothes for the charity organization Hansainternational [note: the organization’s name remains unconfirmed as a registered charity organization]. At the time, F5 was a representative of Hansainternational. Graupner added that the fact that Twana H.S. was collecting clothes for the organization indicated that he had contact with the radical jihadist scene in Munich.

On social media, the police found a Facebook account with the displayed name “Luka Hama”. The account ID was titled “Salafar.” One of the posts displayed Twana H.S. at Stachus [note: Stachus is a large central square in Munich, Germany] in a picture with others. The account was registered under an email address attributable to Twana H.S. Three posts were “liked” with this account. One of them detailed a post about “the true religion” and one referred to Hansainternational, which further linked Twana H.S. to [redacted name], F5, when he was still in Germany. The last post pictured a “creed” in black and white. Graupner was unable to establish an exact date due to Facebook’s default settings but suggested that the post was liked in October 2014 at the latest. Mr. Graupner emphasized this finding, arguing that it showed that Twana H.S. had already been deeply interested in Islam at that time.

When asked about the preparations for the Accused’s departure from Germany, Mr. Graupner specified, first, that investigators discovered that Twana H.S. left Germany on March 30, 2015, travelling to Turkey. Prior to leaving, Twana H.S. ordered several outdoor items, including balaclavas. The investigation further found that the departure was planned with another man who left Germany for ISIS. After Twana left Germany, the account and debit card were still being used, however, outstanding invoices were discovered. In relation to some orders, Graupner explained that the group around Twana H.S., F5, and F6 discussed that in “Dar al-Kufr” [lit.: house of disbelief], identified as meaning “war zone” by the BKA, no payments had to be made. 

When Graupner questioned Twana H.S., the Accused admitted having left Germany and joined ISIS. H.S. completed a short training, including Sharia lessons in Arabic as well as training with a weapon. According to Mr. Graupner, Twana H.S. explained that, due to his allergies, he only completed three or four days of training with an assault rifle type Kalashnikov. Twana H.S. attributed the development of his allergies to his overuse of cocaine in Munich. This could not be confirmed. Graupner further recalled the Accused allegedly met family members in Turkey and traveled to Syria with them. Twana H.S. told Graupner that he fled to Mosul after his training, which was ISIS-territory at the time. The prior court concluded that Mosul was therefore a subpar destination if one wanted to flee ISIS. In Mosul, Twana H.S. worked as an ambulance driver.

Moreover, Twana H.S. was injured between 2016 and 2017. Mr. Graupner could uncover a chat in which two ISIS-members, F5 and a man called [redacted name] F10, texted about Twana H.S. being in the hospital. The injury was examined in a forensic assessment during the previous court case. According to Twana H.S., he sustained the injury as the result of a bombing. He claimed to have been present because of his job as an ambulance driver. The forensic expert determined that the shrapnel and wounds were most likely from individual impacts, i.e. gunshot wounds, and not from a large-scale impact.

In Mosul, Twana H.S. met up with F5 and wanted their wives to meet. Graupner obtained this information through chats between the Accused and F5, as well as chats between F5 and F6. At this point, Mr. Graupner clarified that the Accused was not always called “Twana [redacted name] H.-S.” in those chats. He was also called Abdhulla Al-Kurdi as well as Abdullah Al-Almani. Mr. Graupner later specified that Twana H.S. was called “Abdullah Al-Kurdi” when people were talking about him being Abdullah the Kurd and “Abdullah Al-Almani” when talking about him being Abdullah from Germany.

Mr. Graupner further testified that the investigators searched Twana H.S.’s phone. The oldest data saved was from December 2017. Geo-data also revealed that Twana H.S. was in the southeastern part of Turkey when the phone was activated, northwest of Syria. Over several months, Twana H.S., the other Accused Asia R.A. as well as their daughter moved through Turkey until they arrived in Greece on May 20, 2018. At that time, Twana H.S. was researching multiple German cities (Munich, Hamburg, and Bremen) as well as a city in the Netherlands. H.S. procured, allegedly from a person called [redacted name], F11, a set of real IDs of Syrian nationals for himself, and for his Co-Accused, Asia R.A., who was his wife by Islamic law and his daughter at that time. The family used the IDs to enter Germany and apply for asylum. The Accused also told Graupner that these were “the things you can get on Facebook.”

The Court then asked the BKA officer about Mr. [redacted name], F12, the janitor in the Accused’s apartment building. According to Mr. Graupner, the janitor reported that the Accused’s behavior had changed in the months before his departure. While Twana H.S. had been polite before, he turned rude and sullen. Twana H.S. did not terminate his lease himself; another man did this for him. In addition to talking to the janitor, Graupner also questioned the men who cleared the apartment. While these men were sure the Accused had left Germany to join an extremist organization, they were uncertain whether he joined Al-Qaida or ISIS. F12 confirmed that he had heard something similar.

The Court asked about another man connected to the case, named [redacted name], F13. Mr. Graupner remembered that F5 also asked this man to join ISIS.

***

[17-minutes-break]

***

After the break, the Court asked Mr. Graupner about the Accused’s relationship with other ISIS-members. According to the court record in the previous case, Twana and fellow ISIS members had both stated that Twana commented negatively on ISIS due to its suicide bombings following the incident explained above – before H.S.’s departure from Germany. Twana was closest to F6, who he was in contact with throughout his stay in ISIS territory and where they had met each other. Questioned on how the investigative team knew where the Accused was staying at the time, Graupner explained that they tracked the IP address of the Telegram chats through which Twana H.S. and the other members kept in contact.

***

[71-minutes-break]

***

After the lunch break, the Court showed Mr. Graupner multiple pictures. The Court reestablished the details of the chats and broke down the procedural aspects of the case file. They proceeded to show him multiple screenshots of photographs picturing men with sniper rifles on Pinterest. Graupner explained that Twana H.S. had used multiple of these pictures for his profile on Telegram at different times.

Since the Prosecution and the Plaintiffs’ Counsels did not have any questions, the Defense Team posed its questions to the witness. One of H.S.’s Defense Counsels clarified certain details regarding the injury Twana H.S. sustained. Then, Shervin Ameri, the Defense Counsel for Asia R.A., asked if the identity of H.S. had been confirmed. Mr. Graupner answered that they had confirmed it as far as they could.

Before concluding the session, the Court read the verdict of the prior case against Twana H.S. with Case number 9St3/19. The previous court established the history and goals of ISIS and listed the findings on the Accused’s personal life. In the verdict, the former court ruled that it was convinced of Twana H.S.’s voluntary participation in ISIS. The court determined that he was part of the Katiba Anbar al Malakhi [note: “Katiba” in Arabic means “battalion.” The name was unclear]. According to the verdict, Twana H.S. sustained his injury while in Ribat. The previous court held that H.S.’s claim of being an ambulance driver had been purely to downplay his participation in the activities of ISIS. The prior court further identified May 31, 2015 as the date of Twana H.S.’s departure, contradicting other dates mentioned in both the verdict as well as in a witness testimony given by a customs officer during the previous trial holding that it was March 30, 2015.

Due to the advanced time, the Judges interrupted reading the rest of the verdict, which will be resumed in the next session.

The proceedings were adjourned at 3:27 PM

The next trial day will be on June 2, 2025, at 10 AM.

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