NAN-F-49
Terrorism
Stockholm, Feb. 23, 2017 (dpa/NAN) A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced a man to a six-month prison term for encouraging fund-raising for groups labelled as terrorist organisations, using social networking site Facebook.
The 34-year-old, who was not named, denied the charges during the trial at the district court in Malmo, Southern Sweden.
One posting made in August 2013 said “help us provide our brothers in the front line with weapons so that they can avenge our siblings.”
The court said the posting also listed telephone numbers to two individuals.
“The UN and the EU had previously listed one of the numbers in use by a terrorist financier.
“Both individuals have openly supported Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, which have been labelled as terrorist groups by the UN and EU,’’ the court said.
It was the first time a Swedish court applied a 2010 law outlawing people from encouraging terrorism financing.
“The prison sentence was motivated by the very serious consequences the act of encouraging fund-raising could have led to,” Judge Lennart Strinas said.
The man’s attorney said they would study the ruling before considering an appeal, Swedish Radio reported.
(dpa/NAN)
OYE/AMY
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf