German authorities raided properties of a banned Islamic charity across the country on Friday night, German Interior Ministry said Saturday.

Police searched 34 premises of the Al-Aqsa charity and seized aquantity of material, a spokesman for the ministry said.

The raids came hours after the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig upheld a government ban on the group.

Two other groups believed to have links with the al-Aqsa charity were also searched by investigators, the spokesman said.

The Al-Aqsa charity was set up in 1991 in western German city of Aachen and was banned in 2002. German authorities accused the group of offering money to the Islamic group Hamas in Palestinian territories.

Source: Xinhua