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Romanian teen detained, suspected of links to Islamic State
Romanian anti-terrorist authorities have detained a high school student on suspicion of having links to the Islamic State, the first case of its kind in Romania, AP correspondent reports.
A teen boy of Craiova accused of jihadist propaganda on Tuesday evening was detained for 24 hours by prosecutors with the Directorate for the Investigation of Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).
The teen is to undergo psychiatric examination at the National Forensic Institute (INML) to see whether or not he is compos mentis, judiciary sources said.
The prosecutors took him away from his residence in Craiova, southern Romania, and brought him to the main offices of DIICOT in Bucharest City, where he was heard for some hours.
In a video clip posted on its website, DIICOT says the 17-year-old male sped up the stages of his Islamic radicalisation while posting online propaganda messages in an attempt to attract more ISIS supporters.
"B.L.C. has been indicted and remanded for promoting a fundamentalist Islamic message by propaganda, as criminalised by Article 332 (4) of Law 535/2004 concerning the prevention and combat against terror. He sped up the process of his personal Islamic radicalisation by embracing the Islamic faith and converting himself to Islam, the radical Islamist ideology and the jihadist cause promoted by the Islamic State terror grouping. (...) After converting himself to Islam, B.L.C changed his life style, shunning his family and the society while identifying himself with the Islamic State and keeping on talking continuously in its name. He started wearing in public Muslim clothing and posting on social media using Islamic State insignias," says DIICOT.
The prosecutors also claim that the teenager expressed his readiness on social media to become a martyr for the Islamic State either by travelling the areas where ISIS acts to join the ISIS members in their fight, or by self-sacrifice in European countries at the behest of the Islamic State.
For that purpose, he inquired into how to acquire AK weapons, grenades, bulletproof vests and studied how to make a bomb.
The DIICOT prosecutors also say the 17-year-old of Craiova promoted online the radical Islamic doctrine by posting online Islamic State propaganda opinions, pictures, audio/video recordings such as beheadings, people set on fire and shootings execution of people.
"There is a reasonable cause in this case that starting in 2015, suspect B.L.C. systematically and publicly promoted radical Islamic doctrine by posting on social media Islamic States opinions, writings, pictures, audio/video recordings depicting armed/violent activities/actions (beheadings; people set on fire; shooting executions of people; jihadist radical messages of the leaders of terrorist groups; propaganda messages of the Islamic State; promoting Sharia), with the intent of making them known and attempting to win new recruits capable of conducting the same kind of offences as those which propaganda he achieved," DIICOT said Tuesday in a press statement.
The teen's residence was searched and Islamic propaganda documents, materials and information systems were seized.
The action was conducted jointly with judiciary police officers of the DIICOT, with technical and intelligence support from Romania's Intelligence Service (SRI).