A native of Chechnya was sentenced to 15 years in Belgium for preparing terrorist attacks
The Criminal Court of Bruges, in Belgium, handed down guilty verdicts to four people from Chechnya, supporters of the terrorist group “Islamic State”.
Abubakar S. was recognized as the head of a criminal network and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of planning a terrorist attack, reports the Belgian TV channel VRT. Investigators found a video with his oath of allegiance to the “Islamic State” and instructions for assembling a bomb.
The convict’s wife was sentenced to eight years in prison for complicity in the crime. Two more defendants were given conditional terms and fines. The court acquitted the fifth defendant.
At the beginning of May of last year, a series of searches took place in Roselare, Menene, Ostend, Wevelgem and Ghent, after which seven suspects were detained, most of them from Chechnya. The Belgian Prosecutor General’s Office said that young people in their 20s were “actively looking for weapons.”
The investigation showed that the group planned attacks in several neighborhoods of Antwerp, including a Jewish one, in an LGBT bar, a police station and a NATO building, said the press secretary of the Bruges court Amelie Van Belleghem.
- At the end of July, the Belgian prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of three people from Chechnya on suspicion of involvement in Vilayat Khorasan, the Afghan wing of the Islamic State. They are charged with preparing a terrorist attack.
- At the end of May, the French police conducted a large-scale special operation in different cities and detained about ten members of the Chechen diaspora suspected of radicalization. Following it, it was announced that an 18-year-old native of Chechnya had been detained, accused of planning a terrorist attack during one of the football matches at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.
- In Germany, a 17-year-old native of Chechnya was sentenced to four years in prison on charges of preparing a terrorist attack. The sentence was handed down on the basis of the charge of planning premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances, as well as the use of signs of a prohibited association.
- More than 200,000 ethnic Chechens live in European countries – the largest diasporas are in France, Germany and Austria.
More news from Radio Liberty:
