A 32-year-old Syrian with refugee status in Germany has been sentenced to one and a half years in prison for spreading propaganda for Islamic State.
The Higher Regional Court of Celle sentenced the 32-year-old Syrian on Thursday after finding him guilty of calling for others to support the terror group and circulating videos of brutal executions carried out by its members, German tabloid Bild reports.
Investigators found around 50,000 photos and video files on the Syrian’s mobile phone, many of which featured scenes of torture, beheadings, and terrorist attacks.
While the prosecutor in the case called for a two-year and ten-month sentence, the lawyer for the Syrian claimed a lack of evidence demanded an acquittal in the case. The judge, instead, handed down one and a half years in prison with no probation.
The conviction comes only days after a cell of three radical Islamic extremists, a German-Macedonian and two migrants from Turkey, was arrested in the city of Offenbach on charges of plotting a terrorist attack.
The operation that led to the arrest of the trio involved 170 police officers and investigators say the three purchased materials to create a bomb and had also searched the internet to acquire firearms. All three previously expressed support for the Islamic State.
Germany has seen other arrests of potential terror plotters this year as well. In June, a Tunisian migrant and his wife were brought before a court after being accused of planning to use the deadly biological agent ricin to produce a bomb.
Sief Allah H, 30, had previously been in contact with members of Islamic State and had offered to help them spread propaganda. He published jihadist material online in 2018, according to prosecutors.
Last month, neighbouring Switzerland also conducted raids on Islamic State-linked jihadists, arresting 11 people, five of them underage.