Man sentenced to 2 years for promoting terrorist ideology

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a June State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing an 18-year-old man to two years in prison for spreading terrorist ideology through social media in Jordan in July 2021.

The defendant was convicted of promoting Daesh-related ideology to gain sympathisers through social media, and was at first handed three years in prison.

However, the SSC court decided to reduce the sentence to two years because the defendant was young, and “deserved a second chance in life”.

Court documents said the defendant adopted takfiri ideology in 2021 after following Daesh’s social media activity.

“The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia, and he decided to spread its ideology in his neighbourhood and among relatives using social media until his arrest in August 2021,” the 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 contended that the SSC prosecutor “failed to present any other solid evidence that would implicate his client with the charges”.

“My clients just surfed the Internet looking at Daesh websites, but never spread any of their publications as charged,” the lawyer said.

The lawyer further argued that the sentence was “harsh”, and that his client “should benefit from a reduction in the 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, Nayef Samarat, Yassin Abdullat, Hammad Ghzawi and Qassem Dughmi.