German Court Jails IS Fighter for Nearly Seven Years

Two German courts Thursday jailed an Islamic State group jihadist and handed prison terms to four men for backing another Islamist militant group in Syria.

In one trial, a German-Turkish citizen named only as Kerim Marc B. received a jail term of six years and nine months for swearing allegiance to IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and joining the group in combat.

The 23-year-old from the western city Duesseldorf had assumed the nom de guerre Abu Zulfikar and fought in a unit of predominantly Bosnian militants in 2013-14 before he was arrested in Turkey in 2015, the court heard.

Prosecutors in the Duesseldorf trial presented photos of B. with an AK-47 assault rifle and hand grenades and said that even in pre-trial detention, he had sought to convert fellow inmates.

Before the verdict was read, the defendant told the judges he had "completely turned my back on the Islamic State".

In another trial, four men were sentenced for supporting a Syrian rebel group the court labeled a "foreign terrorist organization," the hardline Islamist Ahrar al-Sham.

The four men had supplied the militia, which is battling the regime of President Bashar Assad, with thousands of second-hand military jackets and boots as well as ambulances, the court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart heard.

They received terms ranging from three and a half years jail to a suspended prison term of one year and nine months.