A 17 year-old young man from Craiova, suspected Jihadist propaganda, was taken in custody on Tuesday by investigators, who claim they have proof that he had sent, via the Internet, messages of support for the Jihadist groups and movies on beheadings, sources close to the investigation say, hotnews.ro informs.
The teenager has been heard for two hours in the presence of a psychologist, as he is underage. Investigators might ask for a psychiatric expertize in his case.
According to the quoted sources, the young man is a student at a high school in Craiova, and investigators conducted searches at his home Tuesday morning, based on information that he carried out Jihadist propaganda through messages sent on the Internet.
The adolescent was taken in custody for hearings, and from his house were taken documents, jihadist propaganda papers and information systems.
Investigators have information that the young man had systematically promoted, in the virtual environment, messages of support to terrorist organizations, films showing beheadings of people captured by members of the ISIS group, and videos with threatening messages and regarding the use of means likely to endanger the life and integrity of people, the sources said.
The action was carried out by the DIICOT investigators, with the support of SRI and the specialized support of the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Romanian Police.
SRI spokesman Ovidiu Marincea said that the case is known by SRI, and currently the investigation was taken over by DIICOT.
“The case concerning the Romanian citizen B.L.C. is known by SRI. Currently, there are particular activities by DIICOT and therefore SRI cannot provide information. SRI will come back with an official statement as soon as it is possible,” said Marincea.
How he has converted to Islamism
“In the name of Allah the Merciful. Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah” is the message in Arabic of the 17 year-old adolescent suspected of Jihadist propaganda, who took the name Omar al-Faruq after converting to Islam, as he begins his presentation on the blog ‘Islamic Host’.
“My name is Omar al-Faruq after being (…) and I am 16 and a half years old. I was born and grew up as Christian Orthodox and became Muslim after finding the truth,” wrote the youngster in January 2014 on the blog where he posted his picture.
He tells the story on how he followed the events in Syria on the internet and could see a recording with Bashar al-Assad’s army, which shocked him.
“After five months of research, I found out what happened in Syria and that it does not represent the Islam and then I tried to find Muslims in Craiova/Romania and I thank Allah that I found sister (Damian Maya),” the adolescent wrote.
He says that he told her about the information obtained and said he wants to know more about Islam and he wants to become a Muslim.
“Thanks to Allah, she agreed to teach me how to become a Muslim, and after three months of learning about Islam I became a different person, a Muslim. (…) Thanks to Allah that I stopped at all the evils, such as smoking, alcohol, drugs (…),” he wrote.
He also says that he told his mother how nice it is to be a Muslim and had a long discussion on the subject. He also says that he had to choose between Islam and the relationship with his father and he had chosen ‘life with Allah’.
“I chose my life with Allah. (My father) told me a lot of harsh words, that I am not his son and that he had no son. Now I live with my grandfather and my grandmother,” he added on the blog.
The young man tells about his plans after turning 18 years: “At 18, after graduation, I will take the baccalaureate and the driving license and then I want to go to the Islamic University in Medina (with Allah’s willing), in order save the Holy Quran and Hadith and Islamic books in order to know the full story and became an Islamic preacher.”
The boy’s grandfather said that he had converte to Islamism two years ago.
“The boy had converted to Muslim religion for two years. He didn’t tell us what he was doing up there, but he was very happy. We tried to convince him not to go there, but he did not give up. After all, he’d better go to church than in nightclubs,” the grandfather told Agerpres.
Asked to comment the case on Tuesday, President Klaus Iohannis said that education is the only solution in such cases, adding that “when people are educated, extremism is scarce.”