Swiss court jails extremist group official for 'propoganda' film

ICCS has nearly 4,000 members representing about one per cent of Muslims in country

GENEVA: A Swiss court on Friday slapped a 20-month suspended sentence on an official of a prominent Islamic group for alleged production and distribution of propaganda but acquitted its leader.

The three Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS) suspects included the group's head Nicolas Blancho and spokesman Qaasim Illi, who were both acquitted.

But German national Naim Cherni, the head of the council's "culture production department", was sentenced. He had travelled to Syria in 2015 and made films there with a known militant.

Abdallah Al-Muhaysini of the militant umbrella organisation Jaysh al-Fath ("Army of Conquest").

The films, which prosecutors say amounted to propaganda, were "promoted via social media and at a public event" by Blancho, Illi and Cherni, they had said.

Blancho, who converted to Islam at age 16, has in the past denied being tied to extremism but has staked out positions considered more radical than other leaders in Switzerland.

The ICCS has previously said that the videos Cherni made in Syria have "nothing to do with al Qaeda" and were intended to raise awareness among Muslims about the conflict in the country.



In an email to AFP earlier, Illi said the attorney general was "pushed by an Islamophobic social wave (and) is trying to defame Switzerland's largest Islamic grassroots organisation by its fabricated claim."

He said the ICCS had nearly 4,000 members, representing about one percent of Muslims in Switzerland.

The Syrian conflict has claimed more than 350,000 lives and displaced millions since 2011.