Supreme Court overturns acquittal of terrorism suspect

The Supreme Court, on Friday, overturned a lower court's acquittal of a Syrian national charged with inciting terrorism by uploading videos created by the Islamic State.

The Supreme Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul [YONHAP]

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned a lower court's acquittal of a Syrian national charged with inciting terrorism by uploading videos created by the Islamic State (IS) on social media.

The 39-year-old Syrian man, who worked at a waste disposal site in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, before his indictment, was accused of uploading videos promoting IS to his Facebook account between 2015 and 2018.

His prosecution marks the first time Korea’s counterterrorism act has been applied since it was enacted in 2016.

According to prosecutors, the videos he uploaded were created by IS and included links that allowed viewers to interact directly with the group's members.

Besides uploading IS recruitment videos, the man has also been accused of trying to convince a colleague to join the organization, which the United Nations and most countries have proscribed as a terrorist group.

Although a district court found him guilty of inciting terrorism by encouraging participation in the IS and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment, an appellate court later overturned that ruling and acquitted him for lack of evidence.

However, the Supreme Court remanded the case for retrial after ruling that the suspect’s actions could be seen as “encouraging others to join and participate in the terrorist group.”

IS came to global prominence in 2014 after taking control of vast swathes of northwestern Iraq and eastern Syria during the Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011.

At the height of its power in 2015, the group ruled over 12 million people, whom it subjected to an extremist form of Islamic law.

The group became notorious internationally for committing extensive human rights violations within the territories it controlled and persecuting Christians, Sufis, Shiite Muslims and other religious and ethnic minorities.

These activities, along with their videos depicting executions of journalists and aid workers, led to a multinational effort by U.S., Iraqi, and Kurdish forces to expel IS from all of its territories.

Despite its suppression in the Middle East, the group maintains a large following online and in Western Africa, where it retains some territorial holdings.

The group has also claimed responsibility for massacres in countries outside of its control, such as a series of coordinated bombings and mass shootings in Paris in 2015, a bombing in Kerman, Iran, in January, and a mass shooting and arson attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Russia in March.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]