His name is Luís, he is 32 years old, comes from a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses, he used to live in London, but today he lives in Camacha and works for a freight company. But he can also be introduced as Bilal or “slave of God,” a young man who converted to Islam while imprisoned in an English jail and who defends and promotes its most radical and violent currents and practices on the Internet, such as Holy War (Jihad), Islamic law (Sharia), and the terrorism of the Islamic State.
It is due to this second version of his life that Luís was accused by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of committing two crimes of incitement to terrorism (each crime punishable by up to 6 years in prison) and two crimes of glorifying terrorism (each crime punishable by up to 5 years in prison). This case will be discussed in depth in tomorrow’s print edition of DIÁRIO, but some information can be shared today.
The indictment from the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DCIAP) is dated December 17th, and last week the investigating judge determined that the defendant will await trial in freedom, but with a prohibition on leaving Madeira, the obligation to report weekly to the police, and a prohibition on consulting and publishing jihadist content online.
The DIÁRIO newspaper had access to the indictment, which describes the facts that led the Public Prosecutor’s Office to proceed with an accusation that is unprecedented in Madeira. At issue are mainly content and comments published on Facebook, some of which were made through fake profiles, which, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, show that “the defendant acted out of political and religious conviction, markedly Salafist-jihadist, ideologically committed to the international fundamentalist Islamic movement of jihadist origin, the so-called Global Jihad, which aims to combat infidels through violent armed struggle in search of perfect faith, a movement associated with the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations.”