Belgian police officer
Photo: AFP
European states step up efforts against Islamist recruiters
Belgian court sentences dozens of Sharia4Belgium members; Bosnia tries Muslim cleric accused of recruiting for Islamic State in Syria.
A radical Islamic group that recruited youngsters to fight in Syria was a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow democracy and impose sharia law, a Belgian court ruled Wednesday in a case that played out against a backdrop of soaring terror fears.
The court in Antwerp sentenced the Sharia4Belgium group's "charismatic leader," Fouad Belkacem, to 12 years' imprisonment and gave dozens of other members lower sentences. Belkacem, who was led into court in handcuffs by police in body armor, smiled as he listened to the judgment.
Other senior leaders of the group were sentenced to 15 years because judges said that, unlike Belkacem, they were actively involved in terrorism in Syria.
Belgian police (Photo: AFP)
The verdicts came in one of Belgium's biggest ever terror trials – 46 Muslims were originally indicted, though only a handful appeared in court. Others are believed to be fighting with Sunni armed groups in Syria or to have died in its civil war.
The written judgment said that in the "totalitarian" Islamic state Sharia4Belgium wanted, "there is no freedom, no human rights, no place for personal development, science or culture. Their state is based on violence and fear."
Clamping down on the Sharia4Belgium network, which was disbanded more than two years ago, appears to have done little to rein in Islamic extremists in the country.
Police have carried out a string of raids and arrests this year since a firefight with suspected Islamic terrorists in the eastern industrial town of Verviers shortly after the Paris terror attacks last month.
Belgian police said the Verviers operation, which left two suspected extremists dead, foiled an imminent terror attack. In the aftermath of the Verviers raid, paratroopers were sent onto the streets to help police maintain security and Belgium increased its terror-threat warning to the second-highest level.
One of the suspects in the Sharia4Belgium trial (Photo: AP)
Dimitri Bontinck, the father of one of those convicted, said he was happy that his son, Jejoen Bontinck, received only a suspended sentence after he agreed to testify against the group.
But he warned the trial could only fuel unrest. "This verdict could create more hate and frustration," Bontinck said.
In Sarajevo, a Bosnian Muslim cleric accused of recruiting fighters for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq went on trial on Wednesday under a new law that is designed to stop people joining militants in the Middle East.
Husein Bosnic, known as an unofficial leader of the ultra-conservative Salafi movement in Bosnia, was arrested in September along with four other men who were later released due to a lack of evidence.
The prosecution accuses Bosnic, also known as Bilal, of publicly inciting and recruiting people to commit a terrorist act and organising a terrorist group during 2013 and 2014, "consciously and from a position of religious authority". Bosnic denies the charges against him.
His trial is the first launched under a law adopted last April which sets jail terms of up to 10 years for financing terrorist activities and recruiting and fighting abroad.
"The defendant has called on believers to take part in activities of the Islamic State at public gatherings and via YouTube," said prosecutor Dubravko Campara, adding that Bosnic's calls had inspired many Muslim Bosniaks to leave Bosnia.
"At least six people from his organisation were killed while others are still fighting and therefore represent a threat for security in Bosnia once they return."
Bosnic, who has 17 children and is based in northwestern Bosnia, has received a "significant amount of money" from Arab countries, Campara added.
And in Kosovo, four ethnic Albanian Muslims pleaded not guilty to charges made by an international prosecutor that they belonged to a terrorist group plotting attacks and were linked to Islamic State militants. A fifth, accused of assaulting two American missionaries, pleaded guilty.
The five men had been in detention since November 2013 after a sting operation by the police during which they were caught buying weapons.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
