Germany to deport Isis supporters that were born in country in unprecedented move

Two alleged Isis supporters who were born on Germany are to be deported from the country in the first such expulsion in history.

The men, who hold Algerian and Nigerian citizenship, were arrested on suspicion of planning an imminent terror attack after a gun and Isis flags were found at their homes during police raids in Göttingen.

They have not been prosecuted and the allegations have not been tested in a criminal court, but federal judges upheld their planned deportation, bolstering government plans to expel more foreign nationals believed to be terror threats.

Boris Pistorius, the interior minister for Lower Saxony, said the move sent a “nationwide signal to all fanatics, that we will give not even a centimetre for their inhuman plans”.

“They will be met with the full severity of means at our disposal – whether they have grown up here [in Germany] or not,” he added.

Authorities in the state adopted a new law allowing them to expel terror suspects held to be dangerous in February, amid nationwide security crackdowns following the Berlin attack.

The two unnamed suspects launched an appeal to stay their expulsion from Germany but it was rejected by the Federal Administrative Court on Tuesday.

“This has confirmed our legal position,” Mr Pistorius said. “We have applied the sharpest sword of law governing foreigners to avert a concrete danger and I am satisfied that the court agrees with our assessment.”

The men, who hold Nigerian and Algerian citizenship through their parents, were described as having an extremist Salafist background.

They were arrested in February when investigators found two weapons, at least one of them a firearm that required no permit but had been altered to fire live ammunition.

Ammunition was also discovered alongside flags of the so-called Islamic State and a machete, with counter-terror police seizing computers and other evidence.

Lower Saxony's state government said they will be transported before Easter and could also be banned from returning to Germany for life.

In order for them to be legally deported, the German government must ensure they will not face torture or persecution abroad, and it was unclear whether appeals could be launched in higher courts.

A claim could also be launched using European human rights laws including the right to a family life, as the men are understood to have lived their entire lives in Germany and have few links to their parents’ homelands.

Prosecutors concluded that the two had discussed an attack plan but had no concrete plans to carry one out.

Nevertheless, the government decided to deport them, relying for the first time on measures that were part of tightened anti-terrorism laws passed after the September 11 attacks in the US.

It would be the first time German-born terror suspects are deported from Germany, following a series of cases against foreign citizens including asylum seekers who have arrived since the start of the refugee crisis.

Angela Merkel’s government was criticised for failing to remove terror suspects swiftly enough after revelations an attempt to deport the Isis supporter who killed 12 people in the Berlin Christmas market attack had failed.

Anas Amri was investigated over a previous alleged plot and put under surveillance for several months but missing paperwork meant he could not be sent to Tunisia after his asylum application was rejected in June.

He was released from detention after the maximum period allowed by German law and moved freely around the country using fake identities before carrying out his attack.

Following two previous Isis-inspired terror attacks that hit Germany in July, the interior minister drew up proposals to boost security, including a new focus on deporting foreigners deemed dangerous and stripping dual nationals who fight for extremist groups of their German citizenship.

After the Berlin attack, the government proposed further measures to toughen the rules on deporting such individuals and on monitoring extremists.