An 18-year-old man from the eastern French city of Dijon was convicted on Friday for praising terrorism for naming his Wi-Fi network 'Daesh 21.' The court reportedly handed a suspended sentence of a three-month prison term, under the scope of a new anti-terrorism law passed in 2014, reports said.
Daesh, is the name of ruthless terrorist organization which is guilty of killing both Muslims and non-Muslims alike in Iraq and Syria, as well as carrying out terrorist attacks throughout the world, falsely under the name of religion. Meanwhile, 21 stands for the French department where Dijon is located.
The man's neighbors allegedly reported him to the police, who confiscated his computer, phone and social media accounts to search for terrorist links.
The new French anti-terrorism law, which recognizes the public praise of terrorist acts as a crime, was passed in November 2014.
It allows French courts to punish offenders of such crimes by up to five years in prison, and a fine of $83,000. The use of the internet to commit such crimes increases the penalties with up to seven years in prison and a $111,000 fine.
Hit by several terrorist attacks, France imposed a state of emergency and extended it for six more months until the end of January 2017 due to security concerns across the country. With the extension of emergency rule, the country will have been in a state of emergency for an unprecedented 14 months.
