Iraq News

3 Germans jailed for joining extremist groups in Syria

A German court on Thursday (November 3rd) jailed three young German men for up to four and a half years for travelling to Syria where they teamed up with extremist fighters, AFP reported.

One of the detained, 26, who received the longest prison term, had first travelled to Syria to join the militia group Junud al-Sham and in 2013 joined fighters of the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).

"After his first return to Germany, he once again made himself available as a fighter for ISIL over several weeks in July 2014," the court in the western city of Duesseldorf said in a statement.

"Later in January and in the summer of 2015, he also sought twice to travel to Syria to join ISIL."

The other men, age 24 and 26, were sentenced to two years and nine months for involvement in Junud al-Sham for several months in 2013.

"The confessions of the accused had a mitigating effect on their sentences," the court statement said.

Separately, prosecutors in the south-western town of Karlsruhe decided to detain a 27-year-old man who they suspect of having contacts with an ISIL member in Syria who runs the group's foreign operations.

The man is thought to have been "authorised to plan an attack in Germany", prosecutors said without elaborating.

According to figures released in May by German intelligence services, 820 extremists have left Germany for Syria and Iraq.

Almost a third have returned and 140 were killed while abroad, while around 420 are still in Syria or Iraq.

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