A German court sentenced a 15-year-old boy to four years in prison on Friday for organizing an Islamist attack on a Christmas market in the western city of Leverkusen. The court in Cologne stated that the adolescent planned to rent a truck and “kill as many people as possible” by driving it into the crowded market. The court found that the boy had started becoming “radicalized” in the fall of 2023.
Evidence against the accused included a video posted in a chat group, featuring a recognizable Islamist symbol, where he declared his intention to launch an attack on “infidels.” The court revealed that the boy had planned the attack with another adolescent, who was supposed to record the incident and distribute the footage. This 16-year-old from Brandenburg will face trial in a separate court starting in July.
Germany has experienced several incidents involving Islamist extremists in recent years, the most tragic being the truck rampage at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016, which resulted in the deaths of twelve people. More recently, the death of a police officer in a knife attack on Mannheim’s market square in late May is believed to have been motivated by Islamist extremism.
According to data released by the federal domestic intelligence service, the number of individuals classified as Islamist radicals in Germany decreased slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year. However, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser emphasized that Germany would “continue to step up the fight against Islamist terrorism” upon presenting the report.
In a separate case involving adolescents, four young people aged 15 to 16 were apprehended before Easter this year on suspicion of organizing an Islamist attack in the same western German district. North Rhine-Westphalia state Interior Minister Herbert Reul expressed his shock at the young age of the suspects, calling it a “huge challenge for society as a whole.” Reports indicate that these young individuals intended to carry out knife and Molotov cocktail attacks in the name of the Islamic State organization.
