National Court Sentences Man to Two and a Half Years for Terrorist Self-Radicalisation
Background of the Case
The National Court has sentenced a man to two and a half years in prison for self-radicalisation related to terrorism. His mobile phone was identified by the National Police of Tenerife after it was discovered that he had been contacting various jihadist forums, in which he actively participated in some cases. The police determined that the number was registered in his brother’s name but found that the true user was the now-convicted individual, according to the ruling.
Involvement in Social Networks and Closed Groups
An investigation into his social media and digital footprint revealed that he was involved in several chat groups, some of which were closed by the police. The man was arrested in late 2023 and remained in pre-trial detention until 2024, when he was released on bail. The investigations uncovered multiple profiles, including one that featured an image of an individual wearing a black balaclava alongside the flag of the terrorist group Daesh (Islamic State).
The police also discovered that between 2016 and 2017, the content of his messages shifted from religious topics to overtly jihadist themes. By 2020, he was promoting the radical movement and martyrdom, encouraging armed struggle and justifying attacks.
Escalation in Radicalisation and Military Material
The convicted individual began creating new profiles, deleting previous content, and engaging with foreign contacts while increasingly sharing material of a military nature rather than religious content. This included Quranic verses, videos of attacks, and training materials from terrorist groups, as detailed in the judicial resolution. During a search of his residence—a prefabricated module in a camping site in Almería—police seized the mobile phones he used and several USB drives. One such drive, found in his car, contained extensive jihadist material.
The defence claimed during the trial that the accused did not subscribe to the views of Daesh as a terrorist organisation but was merely studying the Islamic religion. The National Court rejected this argument. Much of the material seized at the time of his arrest consisted of images, texts, audios, and conversations used by the terrorist group to promote violence and “self-form a worldview incompatible with legality,” noted the ruling. According to investigators, the material “proposes violence and radicalism as the ideal means to impose their doctrine, which is entirely different from what could be described as legitimate information gathering on Islamic religion.”
Extensive Activity on Profiles and Chats
One of the accused’s profiles showed over 1,000 posts with jihadist content, and he used several others to indoctrinate or justify a “holy war” against non-believers. He also participated in numerous WhatsApp groups. The convicted individual was involved in approximately 555 chat conversations and possessed nearly 71,000 images related to the terrorist group Hamas and the jihadist movement, 947 audio files, and an additional 2,500 files of this type found on the USB device in his vehicle.
The ruling considered the report of a forensic psychologist when applying the mitigating factor of psychological disturbance, noting that the accused suffers from a mild intellectual disability that affects his social, cultural, and practical functioning and limits his comprehension abilities.
