BRUSSELS — In a case seen as a test of Europe’s ability to combat Islamic extremism through the courts, a Belgian judge on Wednesday ruled that Sharia4Belgium, a group accused of recruiting fighters for Syria, was a terrorist organization and sentenced the group’s leader to 12 years in prison.
The trial began in September in the port city of Antwerp and has drawn attention across Europe amid a debate about how to fight radicalization, particularly after gunmen killed 17 people last month in Paris and its surroundings.
The principal defendant in the Belgian case, Fouad Belkacem, 32, the onetime petty criminal turned religious zealot who led Sharia4Belgium, has not been directly linked to any terrorist attacks. Defense lawyers argued that the organization merely aimed to provoke public opinion, comparing it to the dissident Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot and the radical Ukrainian feminist organization Femen.
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In its ruling on Wednesday, the court declined to drop proceedings against 37 defendants who were tried in absentia, several of whom are believed to have died in fighting in Syria. The judge, according to the Belgian news media, noted that militants sometimes faked their deaths to avoid prosecution. Mr. Abaaoud, for instance, was reported to have been killed last fall but then resurfaced in Europe.
The court ordered the immediate arrest of the 37 defendants who were not present, sentencing them to prison terms of up to 15 years.
