Man given 4-year prison term for attempting to join Daesh

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a November State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to four years in prison after convicting him of attempting to join terrorist groups in Syria in April 2018.

The defendant, who was arrested in October 2018, was convicted of attempting to join Daesh extremists in Syria, and received the maximum punishment.

Court documents said that the defendant adopted takfiri ideology in 2018 after following the Daesh terror group’s activities on social media.

“The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia [Islamic law] and he wrote a special chant to glorify the group and sent it to his relatives,” court papers said.

The defendant met with a Syrian man in April and informed him that he wanted to join the “terrorist group’s fight in Syria”.

“The defendant attempted to infiltrate Syria on several occasions, but was unable to accomplish his mission because the border-crossings were heavily guarded by the Jordanian army,” court papers said.

He was arrested in late October following another failed attempt to cross into Syria from Jordan, the court maintained.

The SSC general prosecutor asked the higher court to uphold the sentence, maintaining that the SSC had followed the proper procedures in sentencing the defendant.

The defendant, however, contested the SSC ruling through his lawyer, claiming that he was arrested “for a long period of time by the security forces”.

The lawyer also claimed that the SSC prosecutor failed to present “any solid evidence that would implicate his client with the charges and depended only on his confessions”.

The lawyer also asked the court for a reduced sentence “to give the defendant a second chance in life”.

However, the higher court ruled that the SSC had followed the proper procedures and the defendant deserved the verdict he had received.

“It was clear that the defendant confessed willingly to the charges and that the authorities’ investigation procedures were correct and within the law,” the Court of Cassation said.

The higher court also checked the detention period and “concluded that it fell within the legal time frame”, court transcripts added.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Hammad Ghzawi and Bassim Mubeidin.