In Spain, a man was convicted of promoting terrorism on social media.
In Spain, a man with a mild intellectual disability was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for actively participating in jihadist forums and spreading terrorist content online.
In Spain, a man was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for independently becoming interested in terrorism. Police found contacts with jihadist forums on his phone, where he actively communicated.
The phone number was registered to the convicted man's brother. The police checked the phone and determined that it was the convicted man who was using it.
Many messages were found in his social networks in various groups, some of which had already been shut down by the police.
The man was detained at the end of 2023 and released on bail in 2024.
The investigation revealed that he had several profiles, one of which showed him wearing a black balaclava with the flag of the terrorist organization ISIS (ISIL).
Around 2016-2017, his messages became more jihadist, and in 2020, he began to praise the radical movement, martyrdom, call for armed struggle, and justify terrorist attacks.
He created new profiles, deleted content and communication with foreigners, and shared materials that became increasingly militant: quotes from the Koran, videos of terrorist attacks, and training of terrorist groups.
During a search of his home (a prefabricated module in a campsite), mobile phones and USB drives with a large amount of jihadist content were found.
In court, the defense argued that the man did not support the ideas of ISIS, but was simply interested in Islam. The court rejected this.
Most of the materials found were images, texts, and audio recordings used by terrorists for violence and to form an ideology incompatible with the law.
Investigators stated that these materials "offer violence and radicalism as a way to impose their doctrine," and that this is not just collecting information about Islam.
More than 1,000 jihadist publications were found in one of the man's profiles, and he used others to convert or justify "holy war" against infidels. He also participated in dozens of WhatsApp groups.
He had about 555 chats, almost 71,000 images of the terrorist organization Hamas and the jihadist movement, 947 audio files, and 2,500 files on a USB drive found in his car.
The court took into account that the man has mild intellectual disabilities, which affect his ability to understand social and cultural norms.