This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/12/world/africa/south-africa-islamic-state.html

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
South Africa Charges 4 Suspected of Plotting to Aid ISIS South Africa Charges Twins Over Plot to Attack U.S. Embassy and Join ISIS
(about 2 hours later)
The South African authorities filed charges against four people on Monday on suspicion of trying to help the Islamic State, including two brothers who tried to fly to Syria over the weekend. JOHANNESBURG — The South African authorities filed terrorism-related chargeson Monday against twin brothers who they say plotted to attack the United States Embassy in South Africa and tried to fly to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
The suspects — three men and one woman, all in their early 20s — were arrested on Sunday after an inquiry by the country’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation. The brothers were arrested on Saturday, along with two accomplices, after investigators with South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation found ammunitions and grenades in a home belonging to one of the suspects in Johannesburg, said Hangwani Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the directorate.
The two brothers who tried to fly to Syria face terrorism-related charges, while the two others face charges of weapons possession. Mr. Mulaudzi said that the two brothers had planned to attack the embassy in Pretoria, the capital, as well as an unidentified “Jewish building” in the country. The other two suspects — a brother and a sister — face charges related to weapons possession, Mr. Mulaudzi said.
“We’ve been monitoring the movements of these four, and on Saturday, we were executing search warrants and that’s when we managed to seize some of the stuff that pointed directly to them, hence the decision to arrest them,” Hangwani Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the directorate, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg News. The arrests, Mr. Mulaudzi said, followed a 10-month investigation of the four suspects, who all live in Johannesburg and know one another. Last year, in two separate episodes, the authorities prevented the brothers from going to Syria — once by flying out of Johannesburg and the other time by traveling through Mozambique.
“We stopped them from flying to Syria, and the airline concerned was also informed and they were refused access,” the German news agency Deutsche Welle quoted Mr. Mulaudzi as saying. “Investigations showed they intended to join terrorist group ISIS.” The arrests were a new development for South Africa, which has a small Muslim population and has not been known to be a hub of Islamic State activity.
Also on Monday, the South African news media reported that a plane flying to Pretoria from Cape Town with 72 passengers and four crew members on board had been hijacked. It appeared to be a false alarm. The airline operating the flight, SA Airlink, acknowledged a “hijack alert” but said it “appears to be an anomaly,” and it confirmed that everyone on board was safe. “There were cases where we’ve stopped people from traveling to Syria before, but in terms of an arrest, this is the first time,” Mr. Mulaudzi said.
South Africa has not been known to be a hub of Islamic State activity. But last month, the United States issued a travel advisory, and the British and Australian governments followed suit. The brothers, Brandon-Lee Thulsie and Tony-Lee Thulsie, 23, appeared on Monday in Johannesburg Central Magistrate’s Court, where they were charged with “conspiracy and incitement to commit the crime of terrorism.” According to the charges, the brothers had acted since last October to “further the political, religious or ideological motives and objectives” of the Islamic State.
The American government “has received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town,” the State Department said in its travel advisory on June 4. The brothers are scheduled to appear again in court on July 19, when more details could emerge about how far they had carried out their plans to attack the American Embassy.
The British government warned of a “high threat” from terrorism, advising its citizens: “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners such as shopping areas in Johannesburg and Cape Town.” The Australian government, taking note of the United States advisory, told its citizens: “You are advised to be particularly vigilant in areas frequented by foreigners at this time.” Martin A. Ewi, a terrorism expert at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said that the arrests possibly signaled a change in policy by the South African government. Until now, he said, the authorities had quietly tried to handle cases involving South Africans who tried to go to Syria, or even some who had gone and returned.
“The government didn’t want to antagonize certain segments of South African society, so once they knew about you, you were warned and monitored and told to reintegrate yourself, and there were no cases of repeat behavior that we know of,” Mr. Ewi said. “But maybe they now feel that the situation is getting out of hand, or they may have had no alternative because the suspects didn’t change their behavior even though they were under surveillance since last year.”
Beyond isolated cases reported in the local news media, Mr. Ewi said, the authorities had kept such a lid on previous cases that it was impossible to know how many South Africans have been prevented from going to Syria or had actually succeeded in going.
Officials at the United States Embassy in Pretoria declined to comment on the arrests on Monday.
The arrests followed a recent travel advisory by the United States. The advisory angered the South African government, which said it was not based on well-founded intelligence.
The American government warned it had “received information that terrorist groups are planning to carry out near-term attacks against places where U.S. citizens congregate in South Africa, such as upscale shopping areas and malls in Johannesburg and Cape Town,” the State Department said in its travel advisory on June 4.
The British government followed suit by warning of a “high threat” from terrorism, advising its citizens: “Attacks could be indiscriminate, including in places visited by foreigners such as shopping areas in Johannesburg and Cape Town.” The Australian government, taking note of the United States advisory, told its citizens: “You are advised to be particularly vigilant in areas frequented by foreigners at this time.”