Hassan Bal case awaits expert’s radicalisation report prior to sentencing

A 26-year-old man will be sentenced in June for fundraising efforts for terrorist grouping, Islamic State after a court was told that an expert on Islamic de-radicalisation will have finalised a report on the young man by next month.

Hassan Bal was back at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court today, having previously pleaded guilty to two separate terrorist-related offences following a lengthy Garda investigation into fundraising in Ireland for Islamic State.

Bal pleaded guilty to unlawfully transferring €400 by means of an An Post/Western Union money sent to Stevo Maksimovic in the city of Brako in Bosnia Herzegovina on October 2nd, 2015, intending or knowing that the money would be used in whole or in part for the benefit of Islamic State.

Bal also pleaded guilty to a second charge that on October 23rd, 2015 he communicated by phone with an intermediary in London in an attempt to collect or receive cash for Islamic State from a person known to him as Omar Abu Azid at an address at Geron Way, London NW 2 6GJ.

Today, prosecution barrister, Noel Whelan BL said the defence was still awaiting a report by expert in Islamic radicalisation and de-radicalisaton, Daniel Koelher of the German Institute of Radicalisation and De-Radicalisaion Studies.

He said Dr Koelher’s report would be ready by the end of these criminal sessions.

Judge Eugene O’Kelly remanded Bal in continuing custody to appear in court again on May 30th, to fix a date for sentencing in June.

Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and tie, Bal did not speak during the brief hearing, but sat in the dock flanked by armed members of the Regional Support Unit and a number of prison officers at the hearing at Court 1 of the newly refurbished Waterford Court House.