Overview

• The Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf sentenced a 49-year-old Syrian to five years for IS membership and war crimes against property and he remains in custody pending a nonfinal judgment.
• He was acquitted of allegations including complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, sexual exploitation, and recruiting a minor after testimony failed to substantiate those charges.
• Judges cited his prior disengagement from IS as mitigating, with findings that he joined after 2014, worked on property seizures through 2016, left the group before his town’s recapture, and entered Germany in October 2021 via Turkey and the Balkan route.
• The Federal Public Prosecutor had sought seven years while the defense argued for a suspended sentence, and both sides may appeal to the Federal Court of Justice.
• In Vienna, a panel sentenced an 18-year-old to two years, eight months to serve, in a final verdict that cited an April 2025 ChatGPT exchange about an attack, and a separate 15-year-old linked to an online network received a partial remission leading to release.