A Hungarian appeals court has upheld a four-year prison sentence for a Hungarian man who attempted to join the Islamic State terrorist organization.
According to official papers, the court also upheld the two-year prison sentence of another Hungarian man who showed interest in IS on charges of attempted terrorism.
The Győr appeal court upheld the ruling passed in Székesfehérvár on March 28th this year.
Tamás Ferenczy, the spokesman of the court, said in a statement that the two men maintained contact but carried out their activities alone, suggesting they were personally motivated to get in touch with IS.
An investigation found that the primary suspect established online contact with a man called Abu Isa and arranged a meeting with him in Istanbul on January 13th, 2015. They had agreed to travel onwards to Syria.
However, the meeting between the pair fell through so the Hungarian man travelled on to the Syrian-Turkish border alone. It was there that he was arrested and deported to Hungary.
In January, 2015 the man established online contact with the secondary defendant, who downloaded video footage of executions carried out by IS and images of weapons. This man also posted a recording in which he took an oath to join the terrorist organization.
On July 16th the following year, he registered as Mohamed M. on a social media site and posted threats to carry out a terrorist act. This online activity took place two days after the terrorist attack in Nice.