Skopje: Six people including an imam were jailed in Macedonia Friday for between five and seven years for joining jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria.
Rexhep Memishi, an imam at a mosque in the Macedonian capital Skopje, was accused of being the leader of the group and convicted of "being part of a foreign army" and sentenced to seven years in prison, according to a statement by the Skopje court that heard the case.
The others were jailed for up to five and a half years for the same crime. All six pleaded guilty to the charges.
The group were among 11 Macedonian citizens accused of having Islamist links detained as part of a nationwide operation in August 2015 when police raided a number of locations in Skopje and elsewhere.
"The trial of the five accused who pleaded innocent continues," the court statement said.
According to the country's law, joining overseas conflicts and recruiting Macedonians to fight in foreign wars is punishable by at least five years in jail.
Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov recently said that 72 people who have returned from Syria to Macedonia are considered as "potential terrorists".
According to Macedonian police, some 130 Macedonian citizens have fought or are still fighting in the Middle East.
AFP
