Dominik Kobulnický (Jihadi Militant, Czechia)

• Full name: Dominik Kobulnický
• Pseudonym: Abdulrahman
• Alternatives: N/a
• Location: Czechia, Slovakia
• Affiliation: N/a

Dominik Kobulnický (°ca 1993) is a Slovak citizen and resident of Prague who became interested in jihad following his conversion to Islam in 2015.¹ After failing to integrate in the small Muslim immigrant community of Hradec Králové, he sought guidance by Islamist preacher Sameh Shehadeh. The Prague-based extremist counselled Kobulnický but kept him at a distance because he feared that the Slovak was a spy for Czech intelligence services.² Kobulnický became inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [DaIISh; Dawlat al-Islamiya fi-Iraq wal ash-Sham] and actively propagated for the organization on social media.³ At one point, he made preparations for a bomb attack on the bus station in the eastern Slovak city of Prešov.⁴ Kobulnický did not go through with the plot. He also decapitated a cat in a way reminiscent of jihadi beheadings.⁵ By October 2016, Slovak intelligence services began monitoring him.⁶

In December 2017, Czech police arrested Kobulnický in a raid on his apartment in Prague’s Stodůlky suburb.⁷ Bomb-making manuals, chemicals, pyrotechnics and Islamist propaganda were found during the operation.⁸ On Nov. 15, 2019, a court sentenced Kobulnický to more than six years in prison.⁹ The judge suspected him of preparing an attack but believed that the evidence was not sufficient to convict him on that charge.¹⁰ Kobulnický appealed the verdict and was given a lighter sentence of five years imprisonment by another court on Jun. 15, 2020.¹¹