Swedish Jihadist Sentenced After Posing for Photos With Dead Bodies in Syria

Swedish jihadist Nathan Benoitzon has been sentenced to four months in prison for violating international law after he posed for pictures with wounded and dead people in Syria.

The 44-year-old was sentenced to four months in prison by the Blekinge District Court over the incidents, which took place in Syria in 2012.

A police report was filed against Nathan Benoitzon in September of 2021 over his activities in Syria, in which he had claimed that he had travelled to Syria for a holiday prior to getting married in Sweden, the newspaper Expressen reports.

According to the Swedish security police (Sapo), however, Benoitzon had travelled to Syria in October of 2012 where he joined the Islamist group  Kataib al-Muhajireen, which was linked to the terrorist group al-Qaeda and violate international law with others by subjecting prisoners and others to treatment classified as derogatory.

In some of the photos of Benoitzon, he can be seen posing with a severed head and other wounded bodies, while another, posted on social media showed him pointing an automatic rifle at several people. The photographs were allegedly also used as propaganda for jihadists online.

Benoitzon’s photographs had been discovered initially by Swedish journalist Per Gudmundson and Benoitzon had initially been arrested in 2014 at London’s Heathrow airport and was tried and acquitted of terror offences after spending nine months in prison.

While Benoitzon is originally from the Philippines and moved to Sweden in 1992, he is also a Swedish citizen and cannot be deported.

Benoitzon is just the latest returned jihadist from the Middle East to be put on trial in Sweden for activities overseas.

Last year, a woman connected to the Islamic State terror group was charged by Swedish prosecutors for using her own son as a child soldier and charged with aggravated war crimes.

“The investigation supports that her son has been trained and trained to participate in hostilities while living at home, that he has been equipped with military equipment and military weapons, and that he has been used in combat and for propaganda purposes, as well as for other missions that formed part of warfare,” Prosecutor Reena Devgun said in a statement.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.