Bosnian imam jailed for recruiting ISIS fighters

A Bosnian Muslim cleric was sentenced to seven years in jail on Thursday for recruiting fighters to join ISIS, under a new law aimed at stopping people becoming militants in West Asia.

Husein Bosnic, known as an unofficial leader of the ultra-conservative Salafi movement in Bosnia, was arrested in 2014 and was among 17 others on trial in Bosnia for suspected links with militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

Bosnic, sporting a long beard but not dressed in his trademark Salafi robes, showed no emotion as the verdict was read in court. He was guarded by special forces officers in balaclavas, who also acted as security outside the court house. None of his supporters were there for the verdict. “Defendant Husein Bosnic is guilty of ... consciously, during 2013-14 from the position of religious authority, publicly inciting, recruiting people and organising a terrorist group,” the chairman of the court council, Amela Huskic, said.

Prosecution and defence lawyers both said they would appeal, and Bosnic’s lawyer, Adil Lozo, said the trial was “politically fabricated”.

Ms Huskic said that mitigating factors in Bosnic’s favour were that he was married with 17 children and had no previous convictions, but she also said he had shown no remorse and maintained that he was only interpreting Islam.

In his lectures held in Salafi strongholds in Bosnia and published on YouTube, Bosnic had promoted and spread Islamist radicalism, citing selective parts of the Quran to convince believers that killing so-called infidels, or non-Muslims, would absolve them of any previous sins, she said.