Austrian court sentences Turkish-born Islamists to prison for Islamic State recruitment

A court in the Austrian city of Graz on Thursday convicted four Turkish-born Islamists of recruitment activities for the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State, or ISIS.

The prosecutor called for tough sentences, declaring “Islamists are Islamic Nazis,” according to a report in the mass-circulation paper Kronen Zeitung. He added that “We have to stop with false tolerance,” because basic state rights “are attacked” in these [Islamic] associations.

The prosecutor blasted radical Islamic associations in which “Islamism supplants the rule of law if we are not careful.”

After ten days of judicial hearings, the court in Graz, the capital of the Styria state, sentenced an imam to seven years in prison.

The 47-year-old Islamic preacher was charged with recruiting a number of young men to join the Islamic State.

According to Kronen, the defense attorney for the imam said “there is no evidence” that the preacher recruited and radicalized men to fight for the Islamic State. The attorney said the preacher warned others against fighting for the terrorist entity.

The court sentenced three additional Islamists to penalties ranging from five months to six years for their roles in the terrorist recruitment process. Two men were acquitted. The convicted men can appeal the verdicts. One of the Islamists purchased a rifle scope for a Kalashnikov and sent it to his brother – a sniper for the Islamic State.

The defense attorney said that it was “a mistake” because his client did not know what his brother had needed it for.

“He will not have used it as a paperweight,” said the prosecutor.

Source: JP