A Belgian court on Monday (February 13th) sentenced an extremist to 28 years in jail for committing murder in Syria, in the country's first such conviction, AFP reported.
The 24-year-old man, Hakim Elouassaki, was a member of Sharia4Belgium, a radical group based in the northern city of Antwerp, according to the Belga news agency.
The group was dissolved in 2012, after it sent numerous fighters to Syria and Iraq.
Elouassaki travelled in October 2012 to Syria, where he joined an extremist group, Belga said.
On January 14th, 2013, he confided in his girlfriend in Belgium and admitted he shot a hostage in the head after his family failed to pay the ransom, the agency added.
He did not know, however, that the phone line was being monitored.
He returned to Belgium in April that year after he was critically injured, and was arrested.
On Monday, the Antwerp criminal court sentenced him to 28 years in prison.
