Dutch man jailed in Ireland for making ISIS threats

A 39-year-old Dutch-Moroccan was sentenced to five years in prison by a criminal court in Ireland for threatening to kill his housemates, calling ISIS attacks in France "excellent" and saying they filled him with "great joy", and telling the police that he would cut the heads off Jews if he only had a sword, local newspaper Independent reports.

Shmael H. is a diagnosed schizophrenic and was not taking his medicine at the time of these incidents. The court in Cork took this into account, but also took note of the fact that S. refused to cooperate with psychiatric support services in the country. The judge sentenced the Dutch man to prison, but recommended that he receive all available psychiatric support while in custody.

Witnesses described H. to the court as not overly religious or fundamentalist, saying he drank, gambled and socialized while in Ireland. But his housemates were seriously frightened by the threats he made against them. "During our incident I think he would have killed someone but he didn't have a weapon", one said, according to the Independent. I cannot predict the future but, for me, if I was alone he would probably have tried to kill me. He was so angry against people."

The Irish court concluded that H. poses a real threat to society, partly because of his history of not following his prescribed psychiatric treatment. H. was convicted for threatening to kill or cause serious harm. He pled guilty to the charges.

According to the Telegraaf, H. was previously also convicted in the Netherlands for threatening to blow up a bus. Then too he was not taking his meds.