PRAGUE: The former imam of Prague was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for helping his brother and sister-in-law join a terror group and for financing terrorism, a court spokeswoman said.
The court in the Czech capital found Samer Shehadeh, a 36-year-old of Palestinian origin, guilty of helping them join the Al-Nusra front, Al-Qaeda’s sister organization in Syria.
“Samer Shehadeh was sentenced to ten years,” Prague Municipal Court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told AFP, adding he appealed the verdict.
His brother Omar was sentenced to 11 years and his Czech sister-in-law to six years, Puci added. Both are at large.
Czech police began investigating Shehadeh in 2016 over alleged attempts to radicalize people as he had asked Czech Muslims not to join a Christian mass against terror in Prague in August of that year.
Samer was also found to have repeatedly sent money to Al-Nusra through intermediaries.
Czech prosecutors filed terrorism-related charges against him and his brother and sister-in-law in early 2018.
According to Czech media reports, Shehadeh was arrested in Jordan before being flown back to the Czech Republic and taken into custody in November 2018.
Shehadeh was also quoted as saying he was “proud” of having helped his relatives.
He maintains he is innocent of supporting terrorism because he regards the Syrian government as illegitimate and does not see Al-Nusra as a terror group.
Prague ex-imam gets 10 years for supporting terrorism
https://arab.news/p9ksf
Prague ex-imam gets 10 years for supporting terrorism
- Shehadeh was arrested in Jordan before being flown back to the Czech Republic and taken into custody in November 2018
- He maintains he is innocent of supporting terrorism because he regards the Syrian government as illegitimate and does not see Al-Nusra as a terror group
China says Philippines distorted facts about incident near disputed atoll
- The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained”
BEIJING: China’s defense ministry accused the Philippines on Wednesday of distorting the facts about an incident involving the Chinese coast guard and Filipino fishermen near a South China Sea shoal, a charge Manila strongly rejected.
The Philippine coast guard said over the weekend that three Filipino fishermen were injured and two fishing vessels damaged when Chinese coast guard ships cut their anchor lines and fired water cannon near the Sabina Shoal on Friday, actions the Philippine defense secretary denounced as “dangerous” and “inhumane.”
The Chinese ministry defended its coast guard’s actions as “reasonable, lawful, professional and restrained,” and vowed to “take strong and effective measures” in response to “all acts of infringement and provocation,” according to a statement released on its social media account.
“The Philippine side amassed a large number of ships in an organized and premeditated manner to illegally intrude” into the atoll’s lagoon, the ministry said. “Philippine personnel even threatened Chinese coast guard on site with a knife,” it added.
Philippine defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong maintained that Manila has evidence to counter China’s assertions.
“The facts are not distorted. They are documented, timestamped, and corroborated by video recordings, vessel logs, and on-site reporting by the Philippine Coast Guard,” Andolong said in a statement.
“The Philippines is not hyping the issue, the facts speak for themselves. These are aggressive and excessive actions of an encroaching state,” he added.
Sabina Shoal, which China refers to as Xianbin Reef and the Philippines as the Escoda Shoal, lies in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone 150 km (95 miles) west of Palawan province.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway supporting more than $3 trillion of annual commerce. The areas Beijing claims cut into the exclusive economic zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
An international arbitral tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s sweeping claims had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects.
