Man handed 2-year prison term for promoting Daesh ideology

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a November State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to two years in prison after he was convicted of promoting terrorist ideology among Maan residents via social media over the past two years.

The defendant was convicted by the SSC of promoting Daesh ideology by convincing residents in his area that it is “a legitimate group”. He was given a four-year prison term.

However, the court decided to reduce his sentence to half "to give the defendant a second chance in life".

Court documents said the defendant adopted Daesh ideology in 2016 after monitoring the group’s activities on social media.

The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia (Islamic law) and that the group was “defending Muslims in Syria and Iraq”, court papers said.

“The defendant decided to establish a group on Whatsapp named ‘The Right Path’ and shared many of the terror group's publications and video clips with people in his area in a bid to convince them of their ideologies,” court documents said.

The defendant was arrested by security forces who had received information about "his illegal activities", court documents added.

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

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

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zubi, Yassin Abdullat, Bassem Mubeidin and Saeed Mugheid.