Syrian refugee in court: IS videos and stupidity in tune with the times!

An 18-year-old Syrian who lived in a refugee accommodation in Kufstein was sentenced to six months' unconditional imprisonment at the Innsbruck regional court for editing and distributing IS propaganda videos. This comes from a report by Today.at out. The accused had collected thousands of videos of executions and suicide attacks since he was 16 and also exchanged information about building bombs. The case was initiated by a tip from the FBI to the Austrian State Security Service. The public prosecutor described the acts as “disturbing” and referred to the high risk of committing the crime, which led to his pre-trial detention since March 2024.

The young man had made partial confessions in court, but insisted that he never seriously intended to build a bomb. “I wrote that I wanted to blow up a police car, but I didn't mean it seriously,” he said himself. When he was arrested, no materials for making a bomb could be secured. He was acquitted on two further charges because the judge emphasized that sending propaganda videos alone was not enough to prove IS involvement, according to the judge Kurier.at.

A plea for faith or naivety?

His defense attorney spoke of “stupidity” and pointed out that the defendant had only researched the information about bomb making out of curiosity. “However, simply sending such videos is not enough to claim IS involvement,” said the judge. A total of around 20,000 videos and photos were found on his devices, although it could not be conclusively proven that the man was actually active in the Islamic State environment. After the verdict was announced, the defendant turned to the judge and promised: “I will not disappoint you.”