Germany to strip Islamic State fighters' citizenship
Xinhua
1551740694000

IS fighters AFP.jpg

(File photo: AFP)

BERLIN, March 4 (Xinhua) -- German coalition government has reached an agreement on stripping some Germans fighting for Islamic State of their citizenship, according to a spokesperson on Monday.

The plan applies to German fighters with a second nationality and are over the age of 18. They would be stripped of their citizenship should they fight for Islamic State after the new rules come into effect, Eleonore Petermann, spokeswoman of Germany's Interior Ministry, told a regular press conference on Monday.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at the same press conference that the law concerned "concrete participation in combat operations for a terrorist fighting force abroad."

The agreement was reached between Interior Minister Horst Seehofer from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Union Party and Justice Minister Katarina Barley, who is from the center-left Social Democratic Party.

How to deal with foreign Islamic State fighters has caused tensions in recent weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump demanded Britain, France and Germany take back over 800 foreign fighters captured in Syria.

But European countries have struggled to come up with a response, fearing the crimes of Islamic State members would be difficult to prosecute in Europe and would result in being released.

Britain last month revoked the citizenship of a teenager who had left the country to join the Islamic State in Syria.

The German government is hoping the legal change will have a "preventative effect" for the future, Petermann said.