Germany charged five Tajik citizens with Islamic State membership and plotting terrorist attacks by raising funds and recruiting people, Reuters reported.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that one of the defendants is suspected of having close contact with two high-ranking ISIS leaders in Afghanistan.

The five suspects were suspected of belonging to an ISUS cell in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, whose members received instructions and materials for building bombs and planning terrorist attacks in Germany.

The network is said to have raised funds for ISIS operations and recruited potential fighters.