Two Islamic convert underage girls have been sentenced by a French court after being convicted of plotting a terrorist attack on a police station in the city of Saint-Etienne.
The two girls, who were arrested in November of 2018, were 17-year-old and 14-years-old at the time of their arrest.
The case initially started after a call to the National Center for Assistance and Prevention of Radicalization that detailed the plot of the two girls, who wanted to enter the central police station in Saint-Etienne armed with knives and attack police officers, Le Figaro reports.
This week, the Saint-Etienne prosecutor’s office announced that both girls had been convicted and sentenced for their attempted plot with the elder girl, originally from Nord-Isère, being handed a 15-month prison sentence with five months probation. She is believed to have been the leader of the plot.
Her younger accomplice, meanwhile, was given a sentence of 10 months in prison with probationary suspension. Psychiatric experts testified that she showed signs of mental impairment during the trial.
Another youth was also sentenced in connection with the case. A 17-year-old male from the department of Gironde was given a nine-month sentence for a public apology for terrorism after he had sent the two girls several radical Islamic propaganda videos.
While female radical Islamic terrorists are rare, there have been several cases of women plotting terrorist attacks or being involved in such cases in European countries in recent years.
The most notorious such case in France took place last year when two Islamic radical women were given 25-year and 30-year sentences after being convicted of a terrorist plot that attempted to blow up Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris using a car filled with gas canisters.
Ornella Gilligmann and Ines Madani were unsuccessful in their plot as when they tried to blow up their car, they used diesel fuel which refused to ignite.
In 2016, a 15-year-old girl was arrested in neighbouring Germany after she attempted to stab a police officer at a railway station in Hanover. The teen later admitted she had been a supporter of the Islamic State terrorist group.