Austria sentences imam, 3 others for IS recruitment

VIENNA: An Austrian court on Thursday sentenced an imam and three other men to jail for running a religious group that recruited young men for the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.

The court in Graz, the capital of Styria state, sentenced the imam to seven years in jail. The three men received six-year, five-year and five-month suspended jail terms for their links to IS in Syria. Two other men were tried but acquitted. All of the accused were born in Turkey and were found to be involved with the group founded by the 47-year-old imam, who has denied radicalising young men to recruit them for IS.