Plzen, West Bohemia, Feb 24 (CTK) – Jan Silovsky, 22, the first Czech prosecuted for having wanted to join Islamic State (IS) in Syria, was sentenced to three years and three months in prison by the Plzen Regional Court which also ordered him to undergo protective out-patient psychiatric treatment on Friday.
The treatment was proposed by the state attorney as well as the defence lawyer.
Silovsky appealed the verdict on the spot, the state attorney took time for decision. The case will now be sent to the High Court.
According to the indictment of December 2016, Silovsky was threatened with 12 to 20 years in prison, or possibly life imprisonment for the preparation of a terrorist attack.
However, in his final speech, the state attorney proposed that Silovsky’s conduct be considered according to the new valid addition to the penal code as support and propagation of terrorism in the stage of preparation, which carries three to 12 years in prison.
He proposed four years in prison for Silovsky. The defence wanted acquittal, or possibly a suspended sentence.
In his final speech on Friday, Silovsky expressed regret at that he wanted to leave for Syria and said he would not do it again.
He told the court he did not go Syria to kill, but to let himself be killed.
Silovsky was detained at the international airport in Istanbul in February 2016 with a one-way air ticket for an inter-state flight to the town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border. He ordered a car via the Internet to take him to the Syrian town of Jarabulus where he was to join IS. He confessed this to the Turkish police and they sent him to the Czech Republic.
In his final speech, the state attorney said Silovsky spontaneously admitted his activities in the preparatory hearing. When questioned by police and in court, he said he was interested in religion, bought the Bible and the Quaran to study them and became a Muslim.
He also said he knew that it is a crime to fight for Islamic State. He said he agrees with Islamic State’s effort to unite Islamic countries into a caliphate, but he considers the methods the organisation applies too violent.
