New Zealander gets prison time for sending militant videos

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – A New Zealand man was sentenced Thursday to more than three years in prison for distributing Islamic militant videos in the first case of its type in the South Pacific nation.

After his sentencing, 26-year-old Imran Patel had to be dragged by security guards from an Auckland courtroom while he shouted “Allahu akbar,” the Arabic phrase for “God is great,” according to The New Zealand Herald newspaper.

Patel had earlier pleaded guilty to distributing objectionable material after sending out links to videos made by the Islamic State group that depicted prisoners being shot and beheaded.

Judge Russell Collins said the violence shown on the videos was “grotesque” and that the glorification of such violence was of serious concern to the courts and must be the subject of deterrence, the Herald reported.

Defence lawyer Adam Holland said his client was “naive and misguided,” and although he suspected he was being monitored by police, assumed he was doing nothing wrong.

“He now understands he made a very grave error,” Holland said, according to the newspaper.

But prosecutors argued that Patel lacked remorse.

The Herald said the charges arose after Patel last October sent out a series of texts with links to Islamic State group videos, ignoring a warning from his network provider to stop and then changing his phone number and continuing to send messages after his provider blocked him.