PAZARDZHIK: Thirteen men from Bulgaria’s Roma minority went on trial Thursday charged with helping people join the Daesh group in Syria and propagating extremist ideology.

The men, in long beards uncustomary among Bulgaria’s 13-percent Muslim community, reject the charges. Defence lawyer Vasil Gechev said Thursday that the symbols were “linked to Islam in general”.

The accused form part of a extremist community several hundred strong in several cities set up by self-proclaimed Roma Imam Ahmed Moussa Ahmed, 40, who was already sentenced to two years in jail in 2015 for inciting hatred on religious grounds.

They were pictured with black Daesh flags and T-shirts, shouting slogans and making the raised-finger Daesh “salute”, state prosecutor Nedyalka Popova told the trial in the central city of Pazardzhik.

Their leaders also urged to be ready to wage war in videos released on the Internet, while some of the accused shared videos with Daesh executions on their profiles in the social media, Popova said.

The charge sheet cited four instances when three of the accused gave transport, accommodation, food, phones and fake documents to would-be rebel fighters passing through EU member state Bulgaria toward Syria.

The accused men, plus one non-Roma woman who allegedly worked as a translator, were arrested last March and face eight years in prison if convicted. It was unclear how long the trial would last.

Roma make up just under 10 percent of Bulgaria’s population, around a third of whom are Muslim.