Denmark convicts jihadist teen of ‘attempted terror act’

A Danish court convicts a 17-year-old jihadist sympathizer of “attempting a terrorist act” by planning to carry out attacks on two schools with bombs made from over-the-counter products.

The Danish girl, whose name was not revealed, will receive her final sentence on Thursday. Under Danish law, attempting a “terror act” can lead to life imprisonment.

She was arrested last year in her home in a village 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Copenhagen, aged 15 at the time, after her family alerted the police about suspicious chemical experiments in the basement.

The court in the town of Holbaek said in a statement that investigators found “a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a bottle of citric acid, a bottle of acetone and a plastic tray with unknown liquid residues inside a metal bowl.” The chemicals were purchased at a Danish cosmetic chain store.

Experts said the ingredients she had gathered to produce the high explosive acetone peroxide (TATP) were not enough to build a dangerous bomb, but the court underlined her criminal intent and motivations in the ruling.

The girl, a Muslim convert, had written notes about planning to carry out attacks in both her former primary school in Farevejle and in a Jewish school in Copenhagen. She also wrote about her sympathies for the Islamic State group (IS) in her notes and tried to contact its leaders via Twitter.

— AFP