An Oslo court
sentenced a Norwegian man to eight years in prison on Monday for fighting for
Islamic militants in Syria, in the second case of its kind in the Nordic
country.
Ishaq Ahmed,
24, had pleaded not guilty to the charges and had said he travelled to Syria to
do humanitarian work. He was arrested last year when he returned to Norway
after being shot in the leg in Syria.
“The court
finds it proven beyond any reasonable doubt that the defendant was an armed and
active participant in armed forces belonging to both ISIL (ISIL) and Jabhat al
Nusra while he was in Syria,” the Oslo District Court said.
Ahmed was
convicted of “planning or preparing of a terror act” and obtaining a
firearm while staying with militants in Syria, it said.
Ahmed’s lawyer
said he was considering an appeal. “My client disagrees and is
disappointed by the verdict,” Thomas Randby told Reuters.
In May, three
men were sentenced to prison terms of up to four years and nine months in the
first convictions under a new Norwegian law to crack down on militants
returning from the conflicts in the Middle East.
Authorities in
Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland estimate that hundreds of their citizens
may have gone to Iraq or Syria to receive militant training. Western countries
fear that radicalised fighters may come back to launch attacks at home.
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