Prague, Aug 2 (CTK) – The first Czech man who wanted to join Islamic State was a quiet, taciturn boy who spent most of his spare time by playing computer games at home, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday.
The man was detained at an international airport in Turkey in January and now is in custody. The Turkish police returned the man to the Czech Republic and informed their Czech counterparts about the case. He said he wanted to join the IS.
The man, 25, is from Spalene Porici, a small town with about 2,700 inhabitants in west Bohemia, MfD writes.
He downloaded the film Escape from Taliban along with Arabic music, a short propaganda video Learning to Revere God and Understanding the Quran and placed them among his favourite items online, MfD writes.
“No one would have guessed he would do this. He was an absolutely solitaire man, a shy boy,” a neighbour of his is quoted as saying.
Jan S. lives along with his mum and a sister in a small old house at the outskirts of the small town, MfD writes.
His fellow workers describe him as a timid boy who did not make friends with anyone and was only interested in his work, it adds.
“When it comes to work, he was absolutely reliable. Incredibly hard-working, he set new standards, he always came to work in time,” a fellow worker from the H-P Mont firm manufacturing components for cars, said.
The trained repairman of agricultural machines did not speak English and did not seem to be any militant, MfD writes.
Jan S. was quite different than his peers or fellow workers in the small town. He did not speak with anyone and when a giving a task by his superiors at work, he just curtly answered he would do it, it adds.
The tall, slim boy was never seen in any of the local pubs and did not smoke cigarettes along with his fellow workers.
He did not drunk alcohol, he was a non-smoker, and after the work he immediately walked home, MfD writes.
While at home, he mostly played computer games. His profiles can be found in a number of game forums and he also had a profile on Twitter, but he was not very active, having only published a single tweet with a link to one of the video games, it adds.
However, it could be tracked down online that he was interested in the Arab world and the Middle East. He watched the Arab television station Al-Jazeera and the web sites whose creators claim that they will “monitor Turkey’s war crimes, the violation of human rights and inform about them despite the mainstream media in real time,” MfD writes.
Experts say the world of online computer games can give an answer of why the youth was radicalised and wanted to leave for Syria, it adds.
The computer games can serve as a communication channel of various militants and terrorists because due to the tremendous number of the players across the world it is very complicated for the authorities to monitor their discussions, MfD writes.
Social networks could have played a role, too, it adds.
“He was an absolutely good boy who never harmed anyone,” another daily, Pravo, quotes a classmate of his as saying.
“If anything, he was targeted by jeers from the rest. He never took part in any rogueries, he was quite reserved,” he added.
The mayor of the small town was taken aback at the news. “We have no terrorist cell here,” he told the paper.
