Israel court gives imam three years for incitement

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — A court in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth has sentenced a local imam to three years in prison for incitement and supporting “terrorism,” court documents showed.

Nazem Abu Slim, the outspoken imam of the Shihab Al-Din mosque, was arrested in October 2010 on suspicion of having ties with militants and was convicted in April on charges of “incitement to violence and terror, and supporting a terror group.”

On Tuesday, Nazareth Magistrates Court sentenced him to three years in prison.

At the request of Abu Slim’s lawyer, the jail term will begin on Nov. 4, to enable the defense time to file an appeal.
In the April ruling, the court said Abu Slim had distributed booklets and brochures that support the global jihadist ideology and the ideology of the Al-Qaeda group, “which does not allow its followers to remain dormant,” which espoused “a call for violence and bloodshed.”

In June 2010, police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency arrested seven Israeli Arabs from the Nazareth area, who reportedly attended the Shihab Al-Din mosque, on suspicion of planning attacks on Jews and Christians. – AFP