A 28-year-old man who promoted Islamic State (IS) on the internet has been sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of three and a half years by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court. According to a spokesperson on Friday, the court in Hamburg considered it proven that in the summer of 2020, the German posted pictures, texts and videos on Instagram in three cases calling for jihad (holy war) against people of other faiths. The users of the media were to be encouraged to be trained as fighters by IS in Syria or Iraq and to join the religious war.
The 28-year-old had already been sentenced to one year and four months in prison by the St. Georg District Court on March 25 of this year for common assault – this was included in the total sentence now imposed. Together with two co-defendants, he prayed in a courtyard driveway of an apartment building in Hamburg in October 2020. When a resident asked the three men to let him through in his car, they beat him up.
The prosecution had demanded a total prison sentence of three years and three months, taking into account the conviction by the district court. The defence pleaded for acquittal. Should there nevertheless be a conviction, the sentence should not exceed three years, they demanded.
In the trial, which had started at the beginning of August, the accused remained silent. The man had had a “problematic” childhood, the court spokesman said. He had not learned a profession. He had already been convicted of assault in 2016 and had served some time in prison. Afterwards, the accused had converted and radicalised himself. According to news agency dpa, findings by the Hamburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution also led to the conviction.
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