In Austria, Chechen family sentenced for intention to join IS

In Austria, the court has sentenced three natives of Chechnya to up to two years of imprisonment. They were found guilty of intending to take part in the activities of the organization "Islamic State" (IS), recognized as terrorist.

The court has revealed that three natives of Chechnya, who since 2004 lived in Austria and asked for asylum there, tried to get to Syria through Turkey in July 2014 and were detained.

According to the decision pronounced by Judge Daniel Rechenmacher, the defendants in the case intended to join the IS and support it at least psychologically, and that was sufficient for a verdict of guilty, the RIA "Novosti" reports with reference to the newspaper "Kurier".

On October 1, in Vienna, the court sentenced a 20-year-old native of Chechnya to two years, his 21-old-year wife to one year and seven months, and his 39-year-old mother to one year and nine months of imprisonment.

At the trial, the convicts themselves claimed that they had been in Turkey for medical treatment of their mother. However, in his decision, the Judge has stated that those arguments are refuted by objective evidence, the Radio Liberty reports.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.