Germany: Syrian loses appeal over attempted fraud against IS

BERLIN – A German federal court has rejected an appeal by a Syrian man convicted of attempted fraud for seeking 180,000 euros ($222,000) from someone he thought belonged to the Islamic State group while claiming he planned car-bomb attacks.

The man was originally charged with attempted participation in murder. But he said he only wanted to tap IS for money and never intended an attack, and a court in Saarbruecken convicted him last year of attempted fraud.

The Federal Court of Justice rejected Wednesday his appeal of the conviction and two-year sentence.

The supposed IS contact turned out to be a Syrian opposition supporter who had accessed the chat account of a recently killed IS member and was trying to locate and denounce as many members of the group as possible.