Serbian Citizen Pleads Not Guilty to ‘Inciting Terrorism’

Igor Despotovic, a Serbian citizen, pleaded not guilty to publicly inciting terrorism by posting on the Telegram and Instagram accounts he moderated.

Despotovic told the Belgrade Higher Court he had posted things "out of boredom" and because he wanted "to post religious content".

"I had thousands of posts and only some 20 of them were about armed conflict and even these were not pro-ISIL, nor could encourage anyone [to commit terrorism]," Despotovic told the court on Wednesday.

According to the indictment, obtained by BIRN, Despotovic posted material that "glorifies an organisation which has been declared to be terrorist by the United Nations, Islamic State, and propagates and glorifies its actions, calls for the provision of material assistance and the joining of its ranks, and for armed struggle, violence, murders and suicidal acts, and shows videos of them".

The indictment lists 22 pieces of material posted on at least three Instagram accounts and at least two Telegram channels from early March 2020 until February 2022.

Despotovic allegedly posted "instructions for poisoning the population with the nerve gas Sarin" on Instagram, the indictment says.

Despotovic told the court that he did not post some of the posts in question, or does not remember if he did. One of those was the alleged post about nerve gas.

He also posted on his Instagram accounts photographs of arms, armed men and the Islamic State flag, as well as quotes from Islamic State leaders such as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, it says.

The indictment alleges that, on various occasions, Despotovic posted quotes from late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in 2011.

Despotovic was arrested on February 17. According to the indictment, he...