A court sentences an Arab citizen to 11 months in prison for travelling to fight alongside Syrian rebels.
Several Arab Israelis have been arrested after returning from Syria, where armed opposition to President Bashar al-Assad is now dominated by jihadists, including the Islamic State group.
Yusef Nasrallah travelled via Jordan to Syria where his intention was to “die as a martyr alongside rebels” fighting Assad, the court said in its verdict.
But two days after reaching Syria, Nasrallah was arrested by the Assad regime and spent eight months in prison, where he was “tortured and interrogated.”
During that time, he passed on information about an Israeli military base, the court said, without elaborating.
Nasrallah was released and returned to Israel in December, where the Shin Bet domestic security service detained him.
Several Arab Israelis have been convicted for attempts to join the Syrian rebels.
— AFP
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