By Mansour Al-Shihri
Okaz/Saudi Gazette
RIYADH — An unidentified Indian national said he has given up supporting Daesh (the so-called IS) after he realized that they were exploding mosques and considering other Muslims as kafirs (infidels).
The Indian made the confession during his trial on Tuesday before the Criminal Court here which was trying him on charges of supporting Daesh. “I have repented long before I was caught by the security forces. I repented after the explosion of a mosque in Kuwait in 2015,” he said.
The prosecutor general presented to the court three charges against him including supporting the terrorist organizations in Syria, following their news on his Twitter account and sending pictures of Daesh fighters through WhatsApp to a friend in India.
The court provided the Indian with an interpreter though he speaks good Arabic. “This is to ensure him with complete justice,” the judge said.
The defendant was allowed to reply personally through his interpreter to the charges against him. The defendant admitted that he supported the terrorist organizations in Syria when they were fighting against Bashar Al-Assad but when he came to know that they were exploding mosques, he stopped supporting them. “I am now only following their news on TV channels and the Internet,” he said during the court session which was attended by several journalists and human rights representatives.
The Indian said he did not know at the time that sending pictures showing Daesh fighters on the cell phones was against the law.
“I also did not know that the friend in India to whom I sent the pictures was a Daesh supporter,” he said.
He denied that he was maintaining contacts with Daesh supporters in his home country but admitted that he was maintaining contacts with someone not because he was a supporter of Daesh but because he was a friend.
“I had no idea that my friend was a Daesh supporter,” he told the court.
