The prosecution has sought a 2-year prison term for a foreign student charged with financing the Islamic extremist terrorist organization in Syria.
On the 12th, during the sentencing hearing for Mr. A held by the Busan District Court Criminal Division 7 (Chief Judge Shim Hak-sik), the prosecution requested the court to impose a 2-year prison sentence and a fine of 770,000 won. The prosecution noted, "He provided funds in cryptocurrency for the benefit of the organization, knowing that KTJ (a militant terrorist organization in Syria) is a group that engages in or intends to engage in acts that cause the risk of life by killing or injuring a person, among other acts."
Mr. A, a student from Central Asia who has been attending a university in Busan since 2016, is accused of sending cryptocurrency worth 770,000 won to KTJ in two separate transactions in January and February 2022. The 770,000 won in terrorist financing that A sent was the expense for one KTJ fighter.
KTJ was established in 2014 as a Central Asian-centric jihadist group, and it was designated as an international terrorist organization by the United Nations in March 2022 after carrying out a terrorist attack on the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan in 2016. Mr. A was captured two years later due to international cooperation investigations by police, prosecutors, Interpol, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after being forcibly deported for committing a hit-and-run in the country and illegally residing in the U.S. after illegally entering the country from Mexico in February 2023.
Mr. A was the first case of forcibly repatriating a foreign terrorist offender to the country. In his closing statement, Mr. A appealed for leniency, saying, "A friend I met while studying in Korea asked me to send money, and I sent it, but later I realized that I made a really big mistake. I deeply regret it." The sentencing is scheduled for 9:50 a.m. on April 2.