Terrorist preparations lead to five years in prison for 16-year-old Norwegian

Earlier, State Attorney Marit Formo requested that the 16-year-old be sentenced to eight years in prison, four of which were conditional, writes Norwegian daily Verdens Gang.

The Oslo court did not agree with that and sentenced the boy to five years in prison, three of which are conditional. This sentencing means that the boy will spend two years behind bars.

The court writes in the verdict that they do not doubt that the boy had terrorist intent and that he participated in a terrorist organisation, and also believe that he acted with intent.

According to the verdict, the boy’s young age does not in principle lead to an unconditional prison sentence. The court has therefore considered whether the 16-year-old should instead be given community service or a juvenile sentence.

However, the nature of the offence speaks for unconditional imprisonment, they write, pointing out that the boy was charged with a serious crime with great potential for harm to society. The court also thinks that it could send an unfortunate signal if attempted terrorist acts do not lead to imprisonment.

According to the 16-year old’s defender, lawyer Andreas Berg Fevang, the boy is satisfied that the sentence has been set significantly lower than the prosecution’s claim of eight years imprisonment, of which four years' probation, writes Norwegian newspaper Vårt Land.

Poison

During the search of the home in February, police found several matches with shaved sulphur, messages and PDF’s on the boy’s cell phone and a nicotine-containing liquid.

Although Christian Haga, senior adviser at the Norwegian Poison Information Center, thinks that the liquid is far from a lethal dose, prosecutor Marit Haga thought the boy should still be punished for this. “The indictment here applies to attempts at a terrorist act. It is not a condition that the defendant had managed to make a lethal dose”, said Haga.

Lonely

In court, the 16-year-old admitted that he tried to make a nicotine poison after contacting a person who gave him a recipe.

“I made the poison out of sheer curiosity. I did not intend to harm anyone. It was simply out of sheer curiosity”, the boy said via his interpreter.

He also admitted to having donated around 1,250 kroner to a website with IS propaganda. He made a video that showed how to upload IS propaganda on Twitter without it being stopped by automatic filters.

Prosecutor Marit Formo also presented reports in which the 16-year-old wrote that he should “start with jihad soon”, and that a possible attack could occur on May 17th. The boy explained that he was tough and that he did not think about what he was writing.

Disturbing

The 16-year-old Syrian, who came to Norway a few years ago, was arrested in February, after the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) received a worrying report from the preventive unit of the PST. “It contained disturbing and serious information that we took very seriously. It appeared that the suspect was planning a terrorist attack using poison or explosives”, says PST police superintendent Thomas Lauritzen. The PST is a police security agency responsible for domestic security, thus an equivalent of the British MI5 and the American Department of Homeland Security.

After the police read the PST report, they decided to arrest the boy the next day. According to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, several of the heaviest police units in Norway were involved in the operation, including the Emergency Response Troops. The group, nicknamed “Delta”, is specially trained to handle sharp situations, such as terrorism and hostage situations.

Lauritzen says the high level of the police force was necessary and justified. “The police will enter a situation where there may be potent poison and explosives. We will take care of our crews, in addition to the accused and his family”, Lauritzen said to NRK.