Man jailed for spreading terrorist ideology

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a July State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to five years in prison for spreading terrorist ideology through social media in Jordan in mid-2017.

The defendant was convicted of promoting Daesh ideology to gain more sympathisers through social media and was handed the maximum punishment.

Court documents said the defendant adopted takfiri ideology in 2017 along with two other defendants — who did not appeal their verdicts — after monitoring the Daesh group’s activities on social media.

 “The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia and he decided to spread its ideology using Facebook and Whatsapp until his arrest in late 2017,” court papers said.

The SSC general prosecutor asked the higher court to uphold the sentence, stating the SSC had followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendant.

The defendant contested the SSC ruling through his lawyer, claiming that “the SCC did not submit any evidence that he used social media to spread Daesh ideology”.

The lawyer also charged that the SSC prosecutor “failed to present any other solid evidence that would implicate his client with the charges”.

The lawyer further argued that the sentence was “harsh” and that his client “should benefit from a reduction in penalty, because he is young and deserves a second chance in life”.

However, the higher court ruled that the SSC had followed the proper procedures and the defendant deserved the verdict he had received.

“It was clear that the defendant confessed willingly to his desire to be part of the terror group and the authorities’ investigation procedures were correct and within the law,” the Court of Cassation said.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu’bi, Yassin Abdullat, Hammad Ghzawi and Bassim Mubeidin.