CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller quoted on the case of Marcia M., a female ISIS returnee on trial in Germany. 

CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller interviewed as an expert for main German news magazine “Tagesthemen” of the German Public TV with an assessment of returnee Jennifer W.’s verdict.

CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller's blog quoted: "Eine englischsprachige Blogreihe des Counter Extremism Project widmet sich den Strafprozessen verschiedener Frauen. Sie haben sich dem „Islamischen Staat“ angeschlossen, sind nach Deutschland zurückgekehrt und stehen nun vor Gericht. Der dritte Beitrag erörtert den Urteilsspruch im Strafprozess von Nadine K.: Für ihre Verbrechen im Namen des „IS“, auch an einer Jesidin, wird sie zu neun Jahren und drei Monaten Gefängnis verurteilt, meldet Die Zeit. Das Urteil ist noch nicht rechtskräftig."

"On this week’s edition of 'The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent JJ Green,' Dr. Hans-Jacob Schindler, senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, says it’s a case of 'back to the future.'"

"A couple of days ago we had the first instance where the Islamic State Khorasan province, which is the affiliate of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, had apparently recruited and then asked to pose as refugees and travel to Germany individuals from Central Asia—so Tajiks, Uzbeks, countries that border Afghanistan. And were assumed there is some Islamic State networks. These were arrested while they were scouting targets in Germany, trying to procure weapons, and organize terror attacks. This is fundamentally different from the arrests in 2020, where also Central Asians Tajiks were arrested in Germany, but they were already in Germany when they were contacted by ISIL or they contacted ISIL and then were asked to conduct terror."

"The far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) made a historic breakthrough when it won a district election on Sunday thanks to an “unfortunate intersection” of flashpoints over immigration and the Ukraine war coinciding with the vote, extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler said....

Mr Schindler, a director at the Counter Extremism Project and former German diplomat in the Middle East, said several crises had 'deeply ingrained a sense of insecurity into society'.

'There was Covid, and then when Covid was slightly more under control, the Ukraine war started,' he said."

"Last year, Alexander Ritzmann, the Berlin head of the Counter Extremism Project, warned that the problem would grow if neonazi groups with ties to Ukrainian fascist militias such as III.Weg (“Third Path”), which has trained and invited speakers from Ukraine’s neonazi Azov Battalion, sent volunteers to fight Russian forces."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "I would say it's a very significant operation because it really shows how deep the support networks for the Islamic State in Germany still run. It is a financial network that openly collected funds to send to IS members in prison in camps in Syria to most likely, that's the assertion from the prosecutor, free them with that money from those camps so they can reintegrate into the terrorism structure."

"The reality probably lies somewhere in between, says Sofia Koller, a senior research analyst at the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit organisation in New York.
'It would be wrong to say they were all naive, but also wrong to say they all knew exactly what they were doing,' she told The National. ...
'In one case in court, a Yazidi woman gave a horrifying account. Then the defendant said something like: I’m sorry I called you a slave girl. But I didn’t really hear her say: I’m sorry about what happened to you and your people and how I contributed to that,' Ms Koller said."

"Hans-Jakob Schindler of the Berlin-based Counter Extremism Project told the Bundestag that the dearth of information about the financing of Islamist groups in Germany is partly due to 'legal gaps and hurdles, existing limitations on the powers of the security authorities, as well as a lack of transparency requirements' for mosques and Islamic associations. He said that the legislative proposals could lead to 'major improvements' in filling the knowledge gap (Erkenntnislücke) about the financing of Islamism in Germany."

CEP Senior Alexander Ritzmann writes: "This article assesses the alleged plot by the Reichsbürger group called Patriotic Union to overthrow the German government that was thwarted in December 2022. The article first outlines what is known about the plot. It then in turn examines the history, the ideology, the adherents, and the threat posed by the Reichsbürger."