In a ruling dated February 12, the Audiencia Nacional criminal court jailed Karim Abdeselam Mohamed, 50, and Mohamed El Gharbi, 36, for “recruitment and
terrorist indoctrination” and ordered that each pay an €1,800 fine.

In practice the pair were convicted “for sending letters to other inmates to encourage them to hold on to the jihadist ideology of Islamic State (IS) and urge them to continue terrorist activities once released”.

Both were already serving time for belonging to a terror group, with Mohamed jailed for 12 years in 2015 and Gharbi jailed for eight years in 2018.  A third defendant, Abdelah Abdeselam Ahmed, was acquitted because although he too wrote “belligerent and radical” letters, they didn’t include IS-related “slogans, emblems or drawings”.

Gharbi and Mohamed met inside various prison facilities and began writing to each other, ultimately deciding “to bring together and lead those imprisoned for jihadist crimes so that they wouldn’t abandon this ideology,” the ruling said.

The aim was to encourage them to “remain strong and united in prison” by offering support via handwritten letters that included flags, IS symbols and religious texts. They also painted themed graffiti in places visible to other inmates so they would know radical IS-loyal prisoners were being held there in order to build a “prison front” which was effectively a “collective of radical Muslim prisoners,” it said.

Not only did they approach inmates jailed for jihad offences, but they also sought to “educate, radicalise and attract new followers to their violent ideology” through IS-related slogans.

Ultimately they used their time behind bars to “carry out proselytising activities, to recruit and indoctrinate other inmates,” it said.

Mohamed was jailed in 2015 alongside 10 other jihadists for belonging to an IS-linked group that recruited potential suicide bombers to go to Syria and that dispatched “numerous jihadists”, several of whom had died in such attacks.