Germany sentences a preacher who recruited youth to the Islamic State to 10 and a half years in prison

Abu Walaa, upon his arrival in the courtroom of Celle (Germany), this Wednesday.JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE / Reuters

The German justice on Wednesday sentenced the head of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Germany to 10 and a half years in prison for belonging to that terrorist organization and for recruiting young people willing to carry out attacks.

Abu Walaa, known as

for always presenting himself covered in YouTube videos with which he proselytized, was arrested in 2016. He was considered one of the most influential preachers in Germany and his messages reached thousands of people on social networks social like Facebook.

In his appearances he wore a black robe and turban and sat with his back to the camera.

Walaa, 37, was one of the most prominent figures in extremist Islamism.

"He openly declares himself a member of the Islamic State and has appeared as a speaker at numerous Salafist events," said the German attorney general's office in a statement informing him of his arrest and that of four other people.

The high court in Celle (near Hanover, in the north of the country) found the Iraqi cleric guilty of belonging to ISIS and of proselytizing and recruiting young people whom he encouraged to join the jihad in Iraq and other ISIS territories.

Three other defendants, aged between 32 and 55, were sentenced to between four and eight years in prison.

Walaa was not only a member of the terrorist organization but "representative of ISIS in Germany", according to the court.

Walaa and his partners were dedicated to radicalizing young people in the Ruhr area and Lower Saxony regions.

Its center of operations was the Hildesheim Mosque, in the latter state.

They managed to send at least eight volunteer fighters, very young, according to the Prosecutor's Office, to Iraq and Syria.

The prosecution believes that two of the men they recruited, two German twin brothers, committed a bloody suicide attack in Iraq in 2015.

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The main defendant in the process arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker in 2001 and was detained in November 2016 after a lengthy investigation.

Police ended up looking at the Hildesheim mosque after detecting an increase in trips to Syria and Iraq after seminars that Walaa organized.

The then Minister of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Ralf Jäger said that the group brought together young people who were going through a personal bad time.

"They started by taking in disoriented young people and then convinced them that in Salafism they could find meaning in their lives," he said after the arrest.