Chakib Limane was arrested in June shortly after he visited a sports store in the northwestern French town of Caen and asked for the surname of the infamous al-Qaeda terrorist and 9/11 mastermind to be printed on the back of his FC Barcelona football shirt.
A security guard called the police after noticing that Mr Limane, a 34-year-old father, was wearing an ankle tag – which is given to offenders – and “acting suspiciously”.
Mr Limane was “trying to hide his face behind a hoodie and avoiding the store’s surveillance cameras” the security guard said in his testimony, which was read out in court.
Alerted by the store, counter-terrorism police conducted a raid at the suspect’s home, during which they found five more ‘personalised’ pro-jihadist football shirts.
One shirt had the name of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man, “Chemical Ali,” written on its back, while another bore the name of a radical Muslim cleric who is currently serving a life sentence in the US, “Abou Hamza”.
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Mr Limane also owned a “Mullah Omar” – a former Taliban leader – football shirt.
Mr Limane’s lawyer, Gabriel Sikout, told the court after his client said that he found his personalised shirts “funny”.
He added: “He sometimes wears the shirts to go running… It’s nothing more than a provocation.
“It’s important to distinguish between provocation and immaturity, and defending terrorism. All my client did is wear a shirt.”
However, the magistrate condemned Mr Limane’s “shocking and irresponsible” behaviour.
“[Mr Limani] is clearly a motivated and violent individual,” the judge said.
In addition to the six pro-terrorist football shirts, police also found jihadist propaganda videos on the suspect’s computer, which Mr Limani says he downloaded “out of curiosity”.
The Caen court also ruled that Mr Limani was to be stripped of his civil and civic rights for the next five years.