Tuesday, Nov 06, 2012
PAKISTAN - The 27-year-old German had travelled to Waziristan in Pakistan with his wife three years ago.
He wanted to liberate the the area, known as a Taleban stronghold, from the "infidel occupiers".
The couple went to the area, a mountainous region in the north-west of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, after converting to Islam.
Known only as Thomas U, he also volunteered to fight for the Taleban.
But he soon became disillusioned with the terror group because of the violence and drug-taking, The Telegraph reported.
He is now on trial in the German capital for involvement in a foreign terrorist group.
He has also turned his back on radical Islam and lets his wife "dress anyway she wants".
"I regret leaving Germany and regret my crimes," he told the court.
He said the violence in the region was just too much for him, especially after seeing the remains of three fellow Germans killed by Pakistani army shelling.
"The sight of their badly mangled bodies moved me," he said.
"I was scared and I wanted to get out.
"Waziristan was not what I was looking for."
He also complained of unhygienic conditions in the war-torn region that left him infected with hepatitis, and which were, in his opinion, "incompatible with the teachings of the Quran". He said in a statement to court that he was appalled by the Taleban's love for drugs and their attitude toward women.
In one case, he said, a Taleban fighter went to the German widow of a dead comrade and told her that she would marry him.
The proposal was made without any consultation with her "as if she was just an object", he said in his statement.
He said that when he met his Taleban recruiters, he and his wife had to hand over about US$6,000 (S$7,300) they had raised in Germany as a donation to a cause which promised to conquer Afghanistan in a year.
In September 2010, the couple fled Pakistan and managed to reach Turkey, where they were arrested.
