A Stockholm court on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old Syrian-Swedish man to seven years and ten months in prison for plotting a terrorist attack on the Stockholm Culture Festival on behalf of the Islamic State. The district court found him guilty of planning the bombing as well as “aggravated participation in a terrorist organisation.”
According to the court, the planned attack could have seriously harmed Sweden, aiming “to instill grave fear in a segment of the population in Sweden that does not share IS’s ideology.” The man had pleaded guilty to the charges.
Evidence presented showed that he had secured financing, conducted reconnaissance at Kungstradgarden park in central Stockholm, and recorded a “martyr video” intended for publication after the attack. He also possessed instructions and components for making explosives, and had purchased clothing and a body camera to record the assault.
Part of the evidence came from interactions with a police infiltrator who provided him with unloaded firearms. The court confirmed the evidence obtained this way was admissible.
The case also involved a 17-year-old accomplice, who was convicted of belonging to IS and plotting a murder in southern Germany in August 2024. The teenager was sentenced to juvenile detention for one year and four months.
