First Slovak Islamist jailed in Prague

The first Slovak citizen to become an Islamist was sentenced to prison for terrorism, in the Czech Republic.

The Prague court jailed 26-year-old Dominik Kobulnicky from the eastern Slovak village of Sarisske Michaany, for six and a half years and extradited him to Slovakia on November 15, the Dennik N daily reported.

“It offends me that such dirt is thrown at me,” Kobulnicky said in court, as quoted by the daily. “I hope my name will be cleared.”

Kobulnicky grew up in a strong Christian family. He was introverted in school but secretly watched videos posted by jihadists online. He became so captivated he decided to convert to Islam in 2015 . . . Soon after, he began visiting a small Turkish mosque in Hradec Kralove, 30 km away from Pardubice. He studied Islam.

Simultaneously, he was planning a terrorist attack on the bus station in Presov, eastern Slovakia, as reported by Dennik N. He did not carry out the attack in the end.

When he appeared in the mosque wearing military clothes, he was recommended to leave. He moved to Prague at the turn of 2015 and 2016. Kobulnicky was then 21 years old and was soon radicalised by the Prague-based Imam Sámer Shehadeh.

The 35-year-old imam, who became Kobulnicky’s role model, is nowadays accused of supporting the military group Fatah Al Sham.

“I do not want to feel sorry for myself, but prison is out of the question,” he said to the court on November 15. “The offence of preparing an attack did not happen.”

Despite this, the court sentenced him to almost seven years in jail and expelled him from the Czech Republic, Denník N wrote.