PARIS — A court has sentenced a Frenchman to a year in prison for operating what prosecutors described as an al Qaeda propaganda website, the first conviction under a 2012 law outlawing “cyberjihad.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that Romain Letellier was convicted Tuesday night of defending and promoting terrorism. He was given a one-year prison term plus a two-year suspended sentence.
The 2012 law was aimed at toughening anti-terrorism measures after a young radical Islamic gunman attacked a Jewish school as part of a rampage that killed seven people.
The 27-year-old Letellier has been jailed since his arrest in September in the Calvados region of Normandy. Letellier said he never intended to incite anyone to violence. No attacks are linked to the site he managed.