A Moroccan imam has been sentenced in Spain to more than 5 years in prison for “apology for terrorism” and “self-indoctrination”. He was using nearby Wi-Fi networks to broadcast pro-ISIS content.
The Spanish National Audience, the judicial body that judges major crimes in Spain, sentenced the Moroccan imam, a certain Bilal, to 5 and a half years in prison. He had been living in Spain since 2018.
Imam at the Istikama mosque in Getafe and teacher in a Muslim school, the 31-year-old young man would have followed the recommendations of the terrorist group Daesh to share jihadist material on the internet using computer means so that his trace is not found. .
The Spanish National Audience found the imam guilty of “incitement through social networks and digital messaging, to commit acts of extreme violence and terrorism”, and of “self-indoctrination”, judging that his activities represented “a serious, concrete and certain danger of carrying out terrorist actions by himself and by third parties”.
The investigation into his case began after links were established between him and a woman, named Noussa, a fighter for the Islamic State and the Al Nusra front, arrested in Barcelona in 2018 on request from Morocco. The two people maintained personal contact online.
Police officers who searched the Imam’s home discovered 4 phones used for broadcasting jihadist content and storing violent jihadist content. Investigators also found that the imam was a member of 41 jihadist groups on the internet.
According to the Spanish press, the imam would have “searched for information on how to carry out attacks and on the attacks that were carried out, and shared the images with third parties” and would have “used the facilities of the mosque to contact the jihadist environment via social networks”, while taking care to use the external Wi-Fi networks for which he had the passwords.