JERUSALEM: An Israeli court on Monday sentenced a Jewish convert to Islam to 38 months in prison.
Valentin Mazlevski, 40, a Belorussian immigrant who moved to Israel in 1996 was blamed for having ties with Islamic State militant group, according to the Shin Bet domestic security service.
He was arrested in February 2017.
The Nazareth district court said in its ruling that Mazlevski had “one goal: to join the organisation”.
He acted “out of identification with the organisation’s ideology,” in the process “violating the law and endangering the state’s security,” it said.
In 2000, while performing compulsory service in the Israeli military, Mazlevski converted to Islam after meeting the Israeli Arab Muslim woman who would become his wife and mother of his five children.
Shin Bet also claimed Monday it had arrested three Arab Israelis for allegedly planning to carry out shooting attacks at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem or against Jewish or Christian prayer sites.
