Police raided the Winterthur mosque in November last year (Keystone)
An Ethiopian imam seeking asylum in Switzerland has been found guilty of inciting violence for calling for the killing and burning of Muslims who refused to join communal prayers, Swiss 20 minuten media outlet reported.
“In his homily of Oct. 21, 2016, in the An‘Nur Mosque, [the imam] is accused among other things of calling for expelling Muslims who do not pray in the community, and even burning them and killing them in their homes if they still refuse,” prosecutors said in a statement in August. The 25-year-old imam claimed that he did not speak Arabic well back then and had delivered a prepared sermon without understanding what he was saying. However, the court ruled otherwise, finding him guilty of three counts of public incitement to crime and violence, multiple depictions of violence, and working without a permit.
The man was given a non-custodial sentence of 18 months and was banned from Switzerland for 10 years, according to 20 Minutes.
Additionally, he was charged and found guilty of posting distributing and violent content on Facebook. One of the shared videos showed men drowning in a cage of water before being dragged out dead. The man claimed he had posted the footage on Facebook merely in order to stimulate discussion. His phone featured a photo of a man holding a torso and a head in his arms, and a photo of a severed head lying in a pot over an open fireplace.
