Thessaloniki (Greece): A Greek court on Friday handed 15-year prison sentences to two suspected jihadists with Swedish passports trying to enter Turkey carrying combat items, a local justice source said.
The suspects' lawyer said the men, who have refugee status in Sweden, would appeal against the sentence. They will remain incarcerated until their next trial, a date for which was not given.
The pair - a 29-year-old of Bosnian descent and a 19- year-old of Yemeni origin were caught in January 2016 near the border with Turkey.
Inside their luggage police found two machetes, army uniforms and other combat paraphernalia. The suspects insist the items had been legally purchased
in Athens as souvenirs.
The 29-year-old had been arrested in Bosnia in 2005 after a police raid at his house found a suicide belt, explosives and a video showing a man with a covered face threatening terrorist acts against the US Capitol and the White House.
He was sentenced to up to 14 years in Bosnian prison, but was released in 2011.
