BERLIN
A German court has jailed a 20 year-old man for being a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the first case of its kind in Germany.
The ethnic-Kosovar German citizen, referred to in court as "Kreshnik B.", was sentenced in the High Regional Court of Frankfurt to three years and nine months in prison on Friday after being convicted of "being a member of a terrorist organization" referring to ISIL, which Germany outlawed in September.
Kreshnik B. was arrested in Frankfurt airport soon after his return from Syria in December.
Federal prosecutors had demanded a sentence of four years and three months, but the court decided on a shorter jail term due to his confessions made during his trial.
Armed clashes
Kreshnik B. admitted traveling to Syria in July last year and said that he had joined ISIL and received military training.
However, he rejected the claims that he also took part in armed clashes.
The end of the trial, which began in September, follows a claim last month by the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, BND, that the growing number of foreign fighters joining ISIL had made Germany vulnerable to a possible terrorist attack.
About 180 fighters were believed to have returned to Germany, Maassen said, adding they were being kept under surveillance.
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