VIENNA (AFP) - An Austrian court on Thursday handed down jail sentences to three Chechen asylum-seekers - a man, his wife and his mother - for seeking to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) extremists in Syria.

The 20-year-old man, his 21-year-old wife and the man's 39-year-old mother were intercepted in Turkey. They said they were there to obtain medical treatment for the mother, who suffers from depression and panic attacks.

But presiding judge Daniel Rechenmacher ruled that their arguments were "completely implausible" and "disproved by objective evidence material".

The man was given two years' jail and the mother, 21 months.

The man's wife was sentenced to 19 months' jail

She was heavily pregnant at the time of her arrest, and gave birth in custody to a boy whom she then called Osama.

All the sentences can be appealed.