The Special Court against Organized Crime and Corruption in Albania sentenced citizen Bledar Zeneli to 5 years in prison.

However, due to the shortened trial, he benefited from a reduction of the sentence, resulting in a final sentence of 3 years and 4 months in prison.

He was accused of “Incitement to calls and propaganda for committing acts with terrorist purposes” and “Incitement to hatred or enmity”.

Zeneli, 31 years old, worked in construction in the city of Durrës.

He was arrested in August 2022 after a two-year investigation by the Anti-Terror Directorate under the direction of the Special Prosecution.

Zeneli was suspected of “publishing articles, radical, extremist, propagandistic materials, and statuses in support of the Islamic State and against the global anti-terrorism coalition” through various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram.

According to the Special Prosecution, Zeneli, in collaboration with unidentified individuals, made public posts through social media expressing open sympathy for terrorist attacks, such as the one that occurred on October 29, 2020, in Nice, France, the terrorist attack in Vienna, Austria, on November 2, 2020, and other terrorist acts or radical and extremist actions.

These posts were made on the profile “Elezi Ibrahimi” on Facebook, the prosecution explained.