Sixteen-year-old Safia S., who stabbed a policeman in Hanover last year on behalf of Islamic State, has been found guilty and sentenced to six years in prison.
The teen Islamic State supporter was arrested in March after she attacked and stabbed a policeman near Hanover central train station. The court sentenced Safia to six years in prison on Thursday after finding her guilty of attempted murder, membership of a terrorist organisation, and intention to commit grievous bodily harm, Die Presse reports.
Along with Safia, Mohammed K. her 19-year-old friend, was sentenced to two years and six months in prison after it was revealed he knew about the young girl’s plans to commit the attack and that she openly supported the terror group but did not report it to the police.
Despite Safia writing a letter of apology, the judges in the case said it was clear that her intent on the day of the attack was to kill the police officer.
Chat logs on her mobile phone showed she not only had extensive contact with members of Islamic State but that she had attempted to join them in Syria. The logs showed Safia had made Islamic State contacts after a trip to Turkey and had used them to attempt to enter Syria. Her brother also made an attempt to join the terror group but was arrested by Turkish authorities.
The teen told police in the immediate aftermath of the attack on the officer that she had chosen to launch an attack in Germany because she was unable to launch any in Syria.
The case of Safia S. is one of many underage Muslims who have either plotted, attempted, or carried out attacks on behalf of Islamic State.
In December, a twelve-year-old boy from Ludwigshafen, in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, attempted to set off homemade nail bombs in the town’s Christmas Market and city hall. Both bombs, which were made of firecrackers and assorted projectiles, failed to explode. The attempted attack came just days before the Christmas Market terror attack in Berlin that killed 12 and injured nearly 50 others.
Earlier that month, an underage asylum seeker was arrested in Cologne for plotting a terrorist attack. The 16-year-old was also an Islamic State sympathiser and was in contact with members of the terror group who were helping him construct a bomb.
In Austria, another underage Muslim was arrested for plotting a terror attack in Vienna and days later a boy of only 12-years-old was taken into custody as police claimed he was also a member of the same terrorist cell.