Bosnia Jails IS Fighter who Urged Killings in Videos

W460

A Sarajevo court sentenced one of Bosnia's most high-profile jihadists to six years in prison on Thursday for fighting alongside the Islamic State group and inciting terrorism in online videos.

Jasmin Keserovic, 26, was found guilty of "organizing a terrorist group" and "publicly encouraging terrorist activities," a court statement said.

Keserovic, who left for Syria in 2003, took part in "terrorist activities, provided assistance and fought alongside ISIS (Islamic State group) forces" in the cities of Manbij, Kobane, Raqqa and Al-Bab, it said.

Born during Bosnia's 1990s inter-ethnic war, Keserovic became a radicalized as a teenager, according to local media.

After quitting high school he spent three years in a northeast hamlet in Bosnia considered the stronghold of the country's Wahhabi movement, an ultra-conservative branch of Islam that dominates in Saudi Arabia.

The majority of Bosnian Muslims, who make up around half the country's 3.5 million population, practice a moderate form of Islam. 

During Keserovic's trial, experts said he had appeared in two videos promoting the IS.

One, which also featured other jihadists from the Balkans, was released in 2015.

In the second, Keserovic, who is wearing a military uniform and armed with an automatic rifle, urges Bosnian Muslims to "kill Christians and their servants in their towns and countries".

"Do not make any difference between civilians and militaries," he says.

He was repatriated to Bosnia in December 2019 along with six fellow countrymen.

In total some 300 Bosnian nationals, including women and children, left for Syria and Iraq, according to authorities.

Around 100 died overseas, while some 85 women and children remain in Syrian camps. 

Around 30 men who returned or were repatriated have been put on trial in the Balkan country and condemned to jail terms of up to four years, which prosecutors deem too lenient.

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