An Austrian court on Wednesday sentenced a Serbian-born Islamic preacher and jihad propagandist to a 20-year prison sentence after the man was found guilty of recruiting young people for the Islamic State terrorist group.
The 34-year-old man known only by his alias, Ebu Tejma, was sentenced just before midnight Wednesday in the southern city of Graz. Tejma, according to a public prosecutor, “brainwashed” dozens of young people into joining the terrorist organization in Syria.
Prosecutors painted Tejma as a “key figure” pushing IS propaganda in Europe and inciting terror attacks. He was arrested in 2014 during a crackdown on jihadist networks in Austria.
Another man, identified as Mucharbek T., was also sentenced to 10 years in prison for recruiting for IS and participating in attacks in Syria.
