In Impoverished North Albania, a Muslim’s Path to Radicalism

They accuse him of using a Facebook account to issue a series of posts promoting the Islamic State and its late leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and calling for a holy war in the Middle East and Africa.

El Salih was released on June 11 after an Appeals Court rejected a prosecution request to keep him in custody until trial.

His defence lawyer, Ferid Muca, said El Salih had simply been sharing his frustrations over the suffering of Muslims and quoting from the Quran.

"None of the posts or statements of the defendant whom I represent have been made with the purpose of inciting or calling or propaganda, as police and prosecutors says," Muca told BIRN.

"He shared them due to the fact that he is sensitive to the injustices suffered by Muslims, since he is a Muslim believer and regularly practices his religion."

Facebook calls

A police officer at the gates of Albania's Special Prosecution Office. Photo: LSA

The initial court decision to remand El Salih in custody, seen by BIRN, lists 13 Facebook posts in which he expresses support for Islamic State, for Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in Syria in 2019, and for a Tirana preacher who was convicted of recruiting and fighters for the Islamic State.

The preacher, Genci Balla, is serving a 17-year prison sentence for recruiting dozens of Albanians who joined the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front in Syria between 2012 and 2014.

On October 12, 2021, El Salih called for Balla's release; on October 19, he praised Baghdadi and the "legitimate" Islamic State caliphate, which took in swathes of Iraq and Syria until its downfall in 2019 to a US-backed coalition of Syrian Kurds and Arabs.

On March 7 this year, El Salih posted a video of armed men in...