ONE EFFECTIVE AND TWO SUSPENDED SENTENCES FOR SPREADING RADICAL ISLAM

Bulgaria’s Pazadrzhik regional court found all 13 accused Islam religious leaders guilty of propagating anti-democratic ideology. The court imposed one effective sentence and two suspended sentences.

Judge Iveta Parpulova sentenced Ahmed Musa Ahmed to imprisonment and Said Mutlu, who is an imam in the town of Sarnitsa, and Abdulah Salih, who is the regional mufti of Pazardzhik,received suspended sentences. They were found guilty of spreading antidemocratic ideology and belonging to an organisation, which was not registered in accordance with the Bulgarian law. The remaining 10 defendants were fined BGN 2000 each.

All were accused of membership in the unregistered in Bulgaria radical religious organization Al Waqf Al Islami. Three of the imams were brought to trial for inciting hatred on religious grounds, but at a later stage this accusation was dropped.

After the court pronounced the sentences there was tension outside the courtroom between supporters of the imams and citizens who had attended the court hearing. The tension spread to the area in front of the Court Building in Pazardzhik where over 150 people supporting the imams, screaming and yelling, started defending them. Police intervention prevented any clashes.