Young Man in Austria Sentenced for Islamic State Facebook Postings

A young Kurdish man in Vienna was given a six month conditional sentence for posting Islamic State images and propaganda on Facebook.

A 20-year-old Kurdish man from Vienna has been sentenced to six months imprisonment for showing open support to the Islamic State. He posted photos of ISIL atrocities on his Facebook profile page, including images of decapitated and pierced heads, and had made favorable comments under them.

He was held in custody in Graz for several weeks. He was one of 13 people arrested in police raids at the end of November and has been allied with Mirsad O., an Islamic preacher and leader of the alleged ‘Bosnian cell’ in Vienna, who is suspected of recruiting fighters to join Islamic State in Syria.

During his hearing he told the court that he was born in Iraq and had “nothing to do with religion until the age of 15 or 16.” He said he had then realized that he was hanging out with a wrong crowd, including "drug dealers, gamblers and idiots" and then began to turn to religion and prayer.

He said that posting the images on Facebook had been "really stupid”, and that he had wanted to "provoke" his former friends and acquaintances.

Nevertheless, Judge Daniel Rechenmacher was not persuaded and sentenced the 20-year-old to six months in prison.

As he had no previous criminal record he was given a conditional verdict and three-year probationary period.

The young man told the judge that being arrested was an eye opening experience and that he was hoping to become a personal trainer and work in a gym once he completed his sentence.