German sentenced to jail for sharing ISIS videos

Florian Flegel, 23, shared messages showing beheading videos and attacks on police

German Florian Flegel was arrested at Stansted Airport in London. Photo: Metropolitan Police

A German man who discussed with his friend carrying out a lone wolf terrorist attack has been jailed in the UK for 40 months for sharing violent ISIS videos with a friend.

Florian Flegel, 23, sent videos that included beheadings, bombings using lorries, a tank crushing someone to death and mass executions.

He was arrested as he prepared to fly back to Germany from Stansted Airport in Essex, east England, after falling out with his landlord and flatmates during a seven-month stay in Britain.

Officers found that he had shared 12,000 mostly mundane messages in nine months with his friend Abdullah, who was living in Germany, but they included more than 30 graphic and violent videos sent by Flegel, a London court was told.

Woolwich Crown Court in London was told that the pair egged each other on and they spoke of joining ISIS and discussed beheadings. Flegel started researching flights to Syria and they discussed how best to cross the border from Turkey.

Judge Andrew Lees said: "There is no doubt following a consideration of the material that you hold an extremist Islamist mindset and you are a supporter of the Islamic State ideology."