A regional court in Düsseldorf sentenced the Islamist influencer Dehran Asanov for fraud.
He was said to have pocketed donations for Palestine.
Asanov reportedly bought a BMW and a Rolex with the money, rather than sending it to people in need.
The Düsseldorf resident, who appeared on social media under the name “Abdelhamid”, was sentenced by the court to three years in prison for 35 counts of commercial fraud. He was not being considered for a suspended sentence, the presiding judge stated.
His wife, who had confessed her knowledge of the criminal activities in court, was sentenced to one year and nine months in prison on probation, news outlet Apollo News reported on July 16.
Two other accomplices were still subject to separate proceedings.
The court considered it proven that Asanov embezzled donations on a large scale.
The influencer, who has German citizenship, is reportedly classified as “extremist-Salafist” by the North Rhine-Westphalian Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
In most of his social media videos, he was seen wearing traditional Islamic robes.
While he preached abstinence to his many followers online, and he is said to have led a life of luxury with embezzled donations of around €500,000.
He has repeatedly called on his followers to donate to those in need in countries with large Muslim communities such as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
But he has also collected donations for food parcels, funerals, pilgrimages to Mecca, Ramadan and construction work in mosques, Funke Mediagroup reported.
Only a small amount of the donations ended up where they were supposed to go.
According to the indictment, Asanov, who has been in official receipt of welfare benefits, used most of the money for private purposes. Large sums were repeatedly withdrawn from the accounts used for collecting donations.
When he was arrested last October in Düsseldorf, the police found €20,000 in cash in thick bundles, Rolex watches, luxury handbags for his wife and an expensive Mercedes, according to authorities.
Asanov, 34, has been in custody for the past eight months.
He had around 200,000 followers on Instagram. On TikTok, his videos have received 15 million likes.
His latest videos were flooded with negative comments in light of his conviction for fraud, after initially receiving online support.
In last year’s Situation Report on Islamism by the North Rhine-Westphalian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, it was said that “Abdelhamid” was a preacher “who has increasingly gained reach within the extremist-Salafist scene in the recent past and has sometimes been able to reach a four-digit audience at face-to-face events.”
