(Swiss Info) A trial is underway at the Federal Criminal Court of two Islamists suspected of membership in a criminal organisation and recruiting followers to travel to conflict regions in Syria.
One of the defendants is accused of fighting for a militant Islamic group with links to the Islamic State in 2013. On his return to Switzerland he allegedly used a martial arts school in the northern city of Winterthur to encourage at least five others to join militant groups.
The 34-year-old convert was temporarily in pre-trial detention in 2016 and is said to be well connected with Salafist groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany and Austria, according to the prosecutor’s indictment.