The National Court has sentenced a defendant to two years and six months in prison for daily posting on social media, mainly on TikTok, videos praising jihadist terrorist actions. Among them, the murder of a sacristan in Algeciras (Cádiz) in January 2023.
Seid Bengag, 26 years old and of Moroccan nationality, had up to 400,000 followers on TikTok, with videos receiving over four million "likes" and live streams with thousands of simultaneous viewers.
The ruling from the Fourth Section reflects the agreement reached between the Prosecutor's Office and the accused, who admitted to the facts and accepted a two-year prison sentence for glorifying terrorism and six months for falsifying an official document, in addition to four years of supervised release.
According to the proven facts, Bengag spread videos through Facebook, Instagram, and mainly TikTok inciting jihad in conflict areas where he also "made threats to carry out attacks against institutions and publicly called for combat, while expressing support for jihad by Muslims in Europe and moderate Muslim countries, with the aim of imposing the sharia or Islamic law."
Additionally, he made continuous statements against Jewish and LGBTQ+ communities, issuing threatening comments against other social media users who did not share his views. In his posts, as per the ruling, he also expressed his willingness to personally undertake a violent jihadist action, "without materializing this intention through concrete actions."
The accused daily posted videos in which he appeared himself, "justifying and glorifying jihad and terrorist actions aimed at punishing Western societies." Furthermore, according to the ruling, he encouraged carrying out violent actions and even dying as martyrs in the name of Islam against Europe and for the recovery of Arab dominance in Spain, Al-Andalus.
Through his TikTok profile, the ruling continues, the accused made posts referring to executions of jihadist actions in Europe, praising attacks like the one committed in Algeciras where a sacristan was murdered in January 2023.
The ruling explains that during the search of his residence in Tarrasa (Barcelona), 12 phones, a laptop, a tablet, and a memory card were found. Over 2,500 videos were discovered, as well as "systematic" searches for knives, pistols, assault rifles, bulletproof vests, and other materials "susceptible to be used for a terrorist violent action."