Isis: Germany jails ex Jewish team footballer Kreshnik Berisha for joining jihad

A 20-year-old man has become the person to be jailed in Germany for joining the Islamic State (Isis) jihadist group.

Kreshnik Berisha, a German of Kosovar origin, was sentenced to three years and nine months in jail by a court in Frankfurt on charges of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.

Berisha, became radicalised about three years ago and decided to travel to Syria via Turkey in July last year.

He was trained in combat by Isis and fought for the group near the Syrian city of Hama, Frankfurt regional court heard during the trial.

After six months in the civil war-torn country, he gave in to pleas from his family and returned to Germany. He was arrested upon landing at Frankfurt airport.

"[He] returned disappointed and traumatised. He saw and experienced terrible suffering there," his lawyer, Mutlu Gunal, told Taz newspaper ahead of the trial, the Guardian reported.

Berisha, who used to play for the youth team of the TuS Makkabi Frankfurt football club, a Jewish team, agreed to confess and give prosecutors information about Isis in return for a milder sentence.

He was initially facing up to 10 years behind bars.

Berisha's conviction was the first of its kind in the country that, according to its domestic security agency, has seen more than 400 of its nationals travel to the Middle East and join the jihad.