A German man on trial, charged with being a member of the jihadist group ISIS, once played for a Jewish soccer club.
Kreshnik Berisha, 20, went on trial in Frankfurt on Sept. 15, the Associated Press reported. Berisha is alleged to have traveled to Syria and fought as an ISIS soldier for five months before returning to Germany. It is Germany’s first such case, according to AP.
The report said Berisha played on the under-17 youth team of Makkabi Frankfurt, a prominent Jewish soccer club, as recently as 2011. Team membership is not restricted to Jews.
Some 400 German citizens are believed to have joined jihadist groups fighting in Syria’s three-year-old civil war. — jta