



A Greek court on Friday, convicted two men who are members of the terrorist group Islamic State, and sentenced them to 15 years imprisonment.

A Komotini court in northern Greece ruled that the two men are guilty as members of a terrorist group and for unlawful arms possession. The two men — a 30-year-old Swedish national and a 21-year-old Yemen national — were carrying hunting knives and they were trying to cross to Turkey.

Authorities suspect that the two men were going to Syria to train for terrorist attacks. They were arrested in January last year at a bust stop on the border town of Alexandroupoli. Police found on them two knives, a rifle part, several cell phones and a suspiciously large sum of money.

The two men — born in Bosnia and Yemen respectively — claimed they were tourists who were enjoying Greece’s nature near Evros River. The river is the natural northeastern border with Turkey. They also claimed that the knives were for surviving in the wilderness and were bought legally from an Athens tourist shop. The purchase of the knives was confirmed.



