Terrorism sentence doubled by appeals court
The Appeals Court doubled a sentence earlier handed down on a man convicted of terrorism-related offences, it was announced on Tuesday.
The man, currently aged 28, had been arrested in Limassol in January 2021. He was later found guilty of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to two years in prison.
The attorney-general’s office subsequently appealed the sentence, which it argued was too lenient.
In its judgment, delivered last week, the Appeals Court agreed and doubled the sentence to four years.
The Appeals Court referred to the findings of the criminal court, which it upheld.
The criminal court had said that authorities found extensive content on the man’s mobile phone relating to the manufacturing of bombs, makeshift explosives devices as well as hazardous chemical and biological substances.
On the defendant’s mobile, police also found ‘instructional videos’ on how to use such devices for attacks on restaurants, buses and nightclubs.
The criminal court had deemed that the quantity and nature of these ‘instruction manuals’ pointed to a person who was ‘training’ to put these to use.
In its ruling, the Appeals Court also dismissed appeals lodged by the man’s attorney, who had argued that the criminal court had wrongly concluded that the man intended to commit acts of terrorism.
The defence attorney also argued that the criminal court had wrongly factored in the man’s ideological beliefs and political opinions.