Updated

A Serbian court has sentenced seven people to up to 11 years in prison on charges that they have sent fighters and money to extremist groups in Syria.

They were convicted and sentenced by the Belgrade High Court on Wednesday on accusations they have cooperated with the Islamic State and the Al-Nusra Front.

Three of them were convicted in absentia, one of whom is believed to have been killed in the fighting in Syria.

Hundreds of Muslims from the Balkans, including Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo, have traveled to Syria to fight in Syria or Iraq.

During the lengthy trial, the defendants, mostly from the southern Serbian region of Sandzak, denied the terrorism charges.