A court in Austrian Graz sentenced an imam of Turkish origin to seven years in jail for recruiting young people into the Islamic State, RIA Novosti reported quoting Presse newspaper.

According to the newspaper, imam is the founder of Rahmet Islamic group, one of the interconnected radical groups based in Vienna, Graz and Linz.

The trial of the members of the Linz-based Rahmet group lasted ten days. The court sentenced three more defendants to sentences of six years, five years and five months, respectively, two other defendants were acquitted. All of them are natives of Turkey.