German justice on Friday sentenced a 15-year-old boy to four years in prison for planning an attack on a Christmas market in Leverkusen, in western Germany.
The verdict was handed down for, among other things, “conspiracy to commit murder” and “disturbing public order by threatening to commit crimes”. According to the spokesman for the Cologne court, the teenager, who had never been convicted, made a “full confession” during the hearing. The defendant, arrested at the end of November, had become radicalised in the autumn of 2023, according to the courts. His plan was to rent a truck and drive it into one of the Christmas markets in the city of Leverkusen with the aim of “running over as many people as possible and killing them”.
According to the indictment, a 16-year-old alleged accomplice from Brandenburg (east) was supposed to have been tasked with filming the crime and then publishing the footage. He will be tried in July. According to the same source, the 15-year-old accused had published a video in a discussion group in which he announced an attack on supposed “infidels”. A symbol identifying the jihadist militia Islamic State was visible in the background of the video.
In recent months, several police operations in Germany have targeted Islamist circles and, according to the authorities, have prevented several attacks. Three minors suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Germany for Islamist reasons were arrested and detained at the end of March. Two suspected Afghan jihadists suspected of having prepared an attack near the Swedish parliament were arrested in Thuringia (in eastern Germany) in March.
At the end of December 2023, three suspected Islamists were arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on Cologne Cathedral on New Year’s Eve. The deadliest jihadist attack on German soil dates back to December 2016: a truck attack claimed by the Islamic State group left 12 dead at a Christmas market in the centre of Berlin.
