STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Two Swedish men were sentenced to life in prison on Monday for assisting in executions in Syria in 2013.
Police found a USB stick containing films showing the killings during a search of one of their homes, a Swedish district court was told.
In a video shown in court by the prosecutor, masked men stood around three men on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs.
Two of the victims have their throats slit. The head of one is cut off and held up for display. Their captors — including the men identified by the prosecutor as the two Swedes — are seen cheering.
The court argued that since the killings and the video intended to seriously intimidate the population of Syria, the two men's actions should be considered a terrorist crime.
"They didn't hold the knife, but otherwise they were highly involved," prosecutor Agnetha Hildning Qvarnstrom said during the trial.
The court did not name the organization the men fought for but said it was proven that the men sympathized with a regime based on Shariah law and the creation of a caliphate.
The two men — aged 32 and 30 — pleaded not guilty, claiming they had not been among the masked men. Swedish news agency TT said both would appeal the court's decision.
It was the first conviction of Swedish citizens on charges of "terrorist crimes" in Syria.