The Liège Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a 35-year-old man from Verviers to a suspended sentence of three years imprisonment for the remainder of his pre-trial detention and a suspended fine of €4,000 for half.
The man was found guilty of participating in the activities of a terrorist organisation and disseminating terrorist propaganda.
The Federal Judicial Police had been informed in July 2022 by the Spanish police of the appearance of the defendant’s name in an investigation carried out on Spanish territory. This investigation concerned a 16-year-old girl who had become radicalised on social networks and had received propaganda material from the Verviers man with links to the so-called Islamic State.
The defendant had exerted influence over the girl to the point of luring her to Belgium. Registered as a terrorist, the defendant had been having an affair with the young woman who had agreed to convert to Islam. In messages exchanged on social networks, he mentioned the idea of "practising shooting", "dying for Allah", "beating France" or "spreading Islam by the sword."
The defendant was suspected of recruiting the underage girl and strengthening her resolve to travel to Syria between August 2021 and July 2022, even though her lawyers believed that the girl had already been radicalised.
The court acquitted the defendant of incitement to terrorism, recruitment and abduction with regard to the girl. However, he was convicted of propaganda and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. The court gave him a suspended sentence of three years for the remainder of the pre-trial detention and a suspended fine of €4,000 for half.
