TIRANA, March 17 – The Tirana District Court on Tuesday started the trial for nine Albanian men, including two self-declared preachers, who have been charged with recruiting and sending more than 70 Albanians to fight with armed groups in Syria.
They were arrested a year ago and charged with promoting and funding terrorist activities. They face a minimum 10-year prison sentence if convicted in the trial.
Prosecutors said the two self-declared imams recruited people in Tirana using two unofficial mosques. The recruitment is illegal under Albanian law.
The Muslim Community and other religious leaders have continuously asked believers not to join rebel groups in Syria. But the two institutions in questions were not under the fold of the country’s Muslim Community, the official organization that manages the affairs of Muslims in Albania.
The document that spelled out the charge against the accused also referred to a number of Albanians who had died in Syria, citing information provided by their families. No exact number was given.
Five of the defendants in the trial refused to take on court-appointed defense attorneys. They also refused to stand up to honor the female judges that will oversee their case.
Similar trials are taking place in other Balkan states as well, where the trend is the same. Local recruiters are accused of sending locals to Syria via Turkey. The trials underline how countries in the Balkans have increased their efforts to prevent the recruitment of fighters for foreign wars following reports that hundreds of people from the region have been fighting with groups in Syria, including the ISIS group.
Muslims make up more than half of Albania’s population, but the country is one of the world’s least religious countries, staunchly secular and religiously tolerant.
Of the 56 percent of Albanians who declared Islam as their religion in the 2011 census, only 7 percent (about 120,000 people) consider religion as a very important factor in their lives, which was the lowest percentage in the world among countries with significant Muslim populations, according to a recent survey. Another survey lists Albania as the thirteenth least religious country in the world.
Albanian authorities have been concerned however by a small number of Albanian Muslims who have been attracted by imams who do not belong to Albania’s traditional school of Islam, which has its roots in the liberal Ottoman Islam, but rather more conservative strains that have their roots in the Arab world.
