A spectacular trial against the Al-Zein clan starts in Leverkusen on Wednesday. The investigators accuse the extended family, among other things, of large-scale welfare fraud, hostage-taking, torture, extortion, forced labor and money laundering. A key witness could be decisive.
He didn’t want to anymore. No more styling customers up to 14 hours at a time in the Oud Barber Shop in Leverkusen-Rheindorf. At the behest of the owners, Samir L. (name changed) was only allowed to take a 15-minute break, otherwise he was supposed to work six days a week. Cameras monitored his actions, the income – even the tips – flowed into the pockets of his employers. For a month of hard work, the hairdresser received just 1,000 euros. Makes almost three euros per hour worked. When L. fell ill with Corona in December 2020, there was no wages. He wanted to quit. But that’s when the hair maker really got to know his employers.
By the beginning of January 2021 at the latest, Badia Al-Zein, known as Buddy, and her three sons should have appeared in the barber shop. The head of the Kurdish-Lebanese Al-Zein clan in Leverkusen made it unmistakably clear to the hairdresser that he couldn’t just quit. And if so, then he should pay 26,000 euros, which had already been invested in the barber shop.
If he continued to disobey the family’s orders, he would be locked in a basement. The clan boss documented what he was doing there with a cell phone video. There you could see how the Al Zeins are said to have tortured another opponent in a music studio in the basement of a building in Düsseldorf. Intimidated, Samir L. continued to work. At the time, the hairdresser later told the police that he felt like a slave to the Al Zein family. The constant monitoring and control by clan members even made him think of suicide.
This is according to FOCUS online information in the indictment of the Düsseldorf public prosecutor. Accordingly, the prosecutors find that Samir L. became the victim of exploitative employment. Namely, through a “ruthless pursuit of profit” by the Al-Zein family. Consequently, there is a suspicion of forced labor in three serious cases. The maximum sentence is ten years.
A chapter that will be dealt with in one of the most spectacular clan processes in Düsseldorf from Wednesday. In addition to the detained boss of the extended family in Leverkusen, the accused are his wife, three of his sons and two of their partners. According to FOCUS online information, one of the descendants, Merhen El Zein, was given a suspended sentence as a teenager for extortion.
Read here: Al-Zein clan in NRW – investigation files reveal: clan boss tortures adulterers until he unpacks
Although he and a friend knocked an opponent unconscious after a dispute in the Neulandpark in Leverkusen and almost beat the defenseless man to death, he got away with a mild sentence at the age of 16. In 2012, the Cologne Regional Court imposed a suspended sentence for attempted manslaughter. According to the verdict, Merhen accepted the death of his adversary with approval. The victim suffered contused lungs, was in mortal danger and was in an artificial coma for days. Six years later, the then 22-year-old got away with a suspended sentence for drug-related offenses.
Merhen El Zein is now in custody like his father due to new suspicions. The allegations against the defendants are gang and commercial fraud, money laundering, kidnapping, kidnapping by extortion, up to dangerous bodily harm, extortion and other crimes. Wolf Bonn, defender of the clan boss, does not want to comment on the allegations in detail when asked. At the start of the trial, the Düsseldorf lawyer announced that “his client will remain silent on the first day of the hearing.”
There should also be no explanation for another main charge: the commercial social benefit fraud in the amount of almost half a million euros. With the Hartz IV benefits, the clan financed the loans for the purchase of the family villa in Leverkusen-Rheindorf via one of the accused sons. The prosecutors estimate the value of the property, which is currently under state supervision, at one million euros. The fact that during the raid and the arrests in June 2021 a good 343,000 euros in cash and expensive Rolex watches were found in the house shows what the financial situation of the social benefit recipients really was.
With around 3000 estimated members, the Al-Zein clan is one of the leading large clans in this country. The family syndicate despises the local legal system. Family honor is everything. In cases of conflict, separate magistrates decide internally. In the NRW clan situation picture, the Al-Zein clan, whose protagonists operate under various aliases such as El Zein, ranks second with 431 crimes.
After top boss Mahmut Ucar, known as El Presidente, fled to Turkey to avoid deportation, his cousin Badia Al-Zein became a leading figure, according to prosecutors. According to investigators, he settles disputes. He is also said to have had a hand in prosecuting witnesses being bribed or threatened in criminal proceedings in order to change their statements.
As FOCUS Online learned, there are two more money laundering procedures against the accused. In May 2021, the Hartz IV recipient and a partner are said to have acquired a plot of land for the construction of a hotel in the Turkish seaside resort of Izmir. Cost: 3.5 million euros. His eldest son, also on government support, is said to have bought a 160-square-meter penthouse in Turkey.
Furthermore, according to the public prosecutor’s office, the family is said to have invested their criminal profits in various companies, including 350,000 euros in a real estate company. In return, the company financed a Range Rover for the clan in return and organized kick-back payments of up to 10,000 euros per month.
The clan trial will also look at criminal paragraph 232, which deals with the allegation of forced labour. Maximum sentence ten years. The hairdresser Samir L. is to testify as one of the key witnesses for the prosecution. He is supposed to tell how his tormentors repeatedly threatened him with threats to keep going. How he didn’t know what to do anymore and fled to his cousin in Munich at the end of March 2021 out of sheer panic. His employers were after him: in phone calls, Badia Al-Zein is said to have insulted the fugitive as a dog. If Samir L. does not follow his instructions, he will split him in half. In addition, the clan boss boasted about his good contacts with the Hells Angels rocker gang.
Apparently, Badia Al-Zein roamed the houses all night long. He often rolled the dice in the back rooms of cafés and betting shops in Düsseldorf, Moers or Oberhausen. Barbut is the name of the illegal game of chance that originated in the Middle East. Two men compete against each other with two dice each. In order to win, certain combinations must be achieved.
The missions brought even the hardened clan boss to his limits. All too often he gambled away high five-digit amounts. At the end of October 2020, he admitted in a tapped phone call that he was probably addicted to gambling. Most recently, he gambled away his watch worth 23,000 euros. Let’s see if it’s still enough for a valuable timepiece after the trial.
