Kosovar to do community work for raising Islamic State flag

PRISTINA, Kosovo – A court on Monday sentenced an Albanian citizen who flew a flag of the Islamic State group at a crossroads in the Kosovo capital to 180 hours of community labour.

The person, identified only as Q.M., was arrested in September last year when he and two minors put the IS flag on a street in Pristina.

The Kosovo court’s verdict said the action “means a public call or urging others to go to Syria and Iraq and join a terror organization.”

In a separate case prosecutors have accused a citizen, identified as R.A., of “frightening the population, of trying to destabilize and destroy political, constitutional, economic and social structures of different states and then create the Islamic State in their territory,” a statement said Monday.

The person used Facebook and YouTube to post videos calling on Muslims to “commit terror acts against the Kosovo government and foreign embassies in Kosovo.”

Those charges are punishable by up to five years in jail if proved.

About 300 Kosovars reportedly have joined the fighting in Syria and Iraq, most of them between 2013-2014.

Many have returned, while others have been killed, but authorities say about 70 are still active with extremist groups. Authorities say no one has gone there over the past year.