The Special Court for Trial of NIA Cases in Ernakulam has convicted one Riyas Aboobacker and sentenced him to ten years rigorous imprisonment for being a member of and supporting the international terrorist organisation ISIS.

The Court of Judge Mini S Das convicted the accused under Sections 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

The case came to light after more than 14 persons were suspected of having travelled abroad from Kerala to join ISIS in the year 2016. The convict was accused of motivating others to perform hijra to the Islamic State or to conduct terrorist activities in Kerala for furthering the objectives of ISIS. He was arrested in April, 2019.

It was revealed during the investigation that he planned to commit terrorist acts in India and that he tried to convince others to carry out terrorist activities on behalf of ISIS in India.

Public Prosecutor Sreenath.S appeared for the NIA while Advocate B.A. Aloor appeared for the accused.

The Court held that the sanction granted by the Central Government under Section 45(1) of the UAPA is in accordance with the law and that the Central Government had carefully examined the materials collected during the investigation and had applied its mind to the same before granting sanction.

The Court held that the evidence of witnesses coupled with the scientifically extracted digital data contained in the mobile phone and other digital devices of the accused and the extracted social media data from the social media account of the accused establishes that the accused is highly radicalized through ISIS ideologies.

The prosecution had produced evidence which showed that the accused had liked the English video pages of Dr Zakir Naik. It also produced evidence to show that the accused chatted with Zahran Hashim, an ISIS leader in Sri Lanka who committed the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings in Churches.

"For instigating PWs 1 and 2 to commit suicide attack he cited the story of Islamic Commander Salahudeen Ayoobi. It was the story about throwing ones own Soldier towards his enemy’s military camp and thereby opening the fort and the person who had been thrown would become a victim of suicide bombing. The accused further stated that India is a land of Kafirs and that Muslims cannot live here", the Court noted.

The Court also held, "The facebook comments and posts made by the accused, advocate war against non-Muslims. In his posts he discloses his intention to do suicide attacks and other acts encouraging and promoting terrorism and hence it is proved that the accused had intention to further the activities of ISIS the terrorist organization.."

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