Hungarian man sentenced to prison for preparing to join Islamic State

A court in western Hungary’s Székesfehérvár sentenced a young Hungarian to four years in a non-binding sentence on Tuesday for preparations to join the Islamic State terrorist organisation.

The defendant claimed that his activities were incorrectly defined as “preparations for a terrorist act” by the court and appealed against the sentence, the court told MTI.

The court also sentenced another young man to two years in prison for threatening with a terrorist act.

He has also appealed against the ruling.

The two young men had exchanged messages from late 2014 to January 2015 concerning plans to join IS. The primary defendant also flew to Istanbul and travelled on to the Syrian border, where the Turkish authorities detained him and sent him back to Hungary.

The secondary defendant posted comments on social media in 2016, in which he “threatened with manslaughter aimed at intimidating the public,” the court said.

Source: MTI