Israeli sentenced to 5 years for joining Syrian Qaeda group

An Israeli Arab man was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison after being convicted of traveling to Syria to join the al-Nusra Front and fight against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

The Haifa District Court sentencing of Amin Snobar, 24, from Kafr Yasif in the northern Galilee, was the most severe so far given to Israeli citizens who have been involved in the Syrian civil war.

He was also ordered to pay a NIS 35,000 ($9,300) fine or serve an extra half a year in prison.

Court papers revealed that Snobar left Israel in mid-2014 and traveled to Turkey. From there he infiltrated into Syria.

Snobar then spent six months training with various jihadist groups including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. In December 2014 he returned to Israel, whereupon he wiped information from his computer, as well as instructing his family to do the same. He also destroyed his cellphone and the SIM card that he used during his time in Syria, actions the court said were intended to hinder a possible investigation, according to court documents.

He was arrested after his return to Israel in January 2015 and convicted a year later on several charges, including exiting the country in an illegal manner, membership in an illegal organization, illegal military training, providing services and assistance to an illegal organization, and obstruction of justice.

Snobar’s legal representative said the sentence was unprecedented and noted that another man convicted of joining the Islamic State was given only two years in prison, Channel 2 reported. The attorney also pointed out the Snobar cooperated with investigators by confessing to most of the charges against him and did not in any way harm state security.

“While it is true that [prosecutors] did not prove that the defendant had [specific] intentions to harm the State of Israel, that does not pardon his actions,” the court noted.

“He took part in extensive and diverse training during the half-year in which he was a member of various groups, including the al-Nusra Front, and in various locations.”

According to the ruling, Snobar trained in bomb-making, infantry combat and the use of various weapons, including assault rifles and RPGs.

The court concluded that Snobar “was not engaging in adventurous behavior, but in the behavior of one who wishes to be part of a terror organization, and even to die as a ‘martyr’ in a jihad in which he sought to participate.”

The al-Nusra Front, the ruling read, “constitutes an arm of al-Qaeda. It was not established just to battle against the Assad regime. It is a Salafist jihadist Islamic organization for which the toppling of the Assad regime is only part of a comprehensive regional plan that intends to establish an Islamic regime in the region, including by replacing the State of Israel, and through the use of violence to achieve its goals.”

Israel formally declared several Syrian jihadist groups, including Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front, illegal organizations in late 2014, after Snobar had already set off on his journey.

According to security services, more than 50 Israeli citizens have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State.

In December 2015, in two separate incidents, an East Jerusalem man and five residents of Nazareth were arrested for planning terror attacks in support of IS.

In November, six Arab Israelis from Jaljulia were arrested for preparing to join Islamic State after a seventh man successfully joined the organization by hang gliding into Syria from the Golan Heights.

And in October, in the first indictments for IS-affiliated activity on Israeli soil, seven men were indicted in Nazareth for attempting to carry out terror attacks in Israel under the Islamic State’s flag, having already acquired weapons and scoped out army bases and police stations.