(Brussels Times) A jihadist fighter from Brussels has been sentenced to five years in prison in absentia after sending threatening messages about “shredded bodies” to a former education minister.
Brussels’ correctional court handed the maximum sentence to Soufian Defauwe and also ordered his immediate detention on charges of participating in terror-related activities.
Defauwe was also on trial for threatening Marie-Martine Schyns, the former minister of education for the Francophone community, sending her a Facebook message in 2014 reading: “Boom, bodies shredded,” La Dernière Heure reports.
After receiving military training, Defauwe left Brussels for Syria in 2014, with his current whereabouts unknown since 2018.
