Norwegian court sentences three for alleged links to IS

A Norwegian court has sentenced three men to jail after they were convicted of joining or supporting the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria, local media reported on Friday.

It is the first time a Norwegian court has dealt with a case in which Norwegian citizens are accused of having participated in combat operations for the IS group in Syria, according to Norway's public broadcaster NRK.

Valon Avdyli, 28, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, while Djibril Abdi Bashir, 30, was handed down a jail term of four years and three months, for having participated in combat operations for the IS group in Syria, NRK said.

Visar Avdyli, 25, a brother of Valon, was sentenced to seven months in prison for supporting the IS group and acquiring equipment for a third brother who was killed while fighting for the extremist group in April last year.

All three men had pleaded not guilty during the trial and lawyers for the Avdyli brothers said they would appeal the court ruling, news agency NTB reported.

Norway's intelligence service chief said in March that the Nordic country must be prepared for possible terrorist attacks as more people have traveled from the country to fight in Syria and Iraq than it knows.

"We are reasonably confident that about 70 people have traveled. We assume that the real figure is significantly higher and the number continues to rise," Benedicte Bjoernland, the head of the Norwegian domestic intelligence service PST, said in a speech at Oslo Military Society.

About 15 people have been killed in the fighting while about 25 have so far returned to Norway, she added.

The experience those foreign fighters gained from their war lowers the threshold for violence when they returned home, the PST chief said, adding that their peers who do not travel could also pose a threat. Endit