KUALA LUMPUR (The Star/Asia News Network) - A canteen supervisor paid a high price for his curiosity as he landed himself with 18 months in jail for owning 39 Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) video clips.

Muhammad Sani Mahdi Sahar, 23, is to serve his jail term from the date of his arrest on Nov 9, 2015.

Questioned by Judicial Commissioner Ab Karim Ab Rahman on why such videos were in his possession, Muhammad Sani answered that he wanted to study ISIS and why the militant group was labelled as terrorists.

"They are all documentaries. I wanted to know why ISIS is regarded as terrorists while all they did was to retaliate against Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime who oppressed the Muslims there," answered Sani, adding that there were also videos of hudud and Islamic monetary system in his collection.

"The court understands your concern as a Muslim over the struggle of the people there. Unfortunately, your action is against our country's law," said Ab Karim.

According to the statement of facts, police had seized all 39 terrorism video recordings, which were saved in Muhammad Sani's mobile phone.

He also admitted to have downloaded the videos from a terrorist's website and he had also shown the recordings to his peers.

Muhammad Sani committed the offence at the Tangkak district police headquarters, Ledang, Johor, at 1.50pm on Nov 9 last year.