Trial of Teenager ‘Safia S’ Starts Behind Closed Doors in Germany Case casts light on radicalization among teens and the challenge it presents for authorities By Ruth Bender
http://www.wsj.com/articles/trial-of-teenager-safia-s-starts-behind-closed-doors-in-germany-1476969360?tesla=y
CELLE, Germany—The trial of a teenage girl accused of stabbing a policeman, in what officials allege was the first attack ordered by Islamic State on German soil, began on Thursday behind closed doors.
The case casts light on the growing phenomenon of radicalization among teens and the new challenge it presents for authorities, given the extensive legal protections juveniles enjoy in most Western countries.
This special status was on evidence on Thursday when the court in this small northern German town ordered reporters and the public out of the courtroom. The minor’s right to a closed-door trial, the judges argued, trumped even the “great public interest given the growing threat of Islamist terrorism.”
The 16-year-old, identified only as Safia S., is charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault and support of a foreign terrorist organization. Federal prosecutors say Islamic State operatives ordered her to commit an “act of martyrdom” and helped plan her knife attack on a policeman in Hannover in late February.
“We believe she was motivated and steered in her act by supporters of IS,” said Simon Henrichs, senior federal prosecutor, after the first day of the trial.
The defendant’s lawyer, Mutlu Günal, denied a terrorist motive, however. “That the attack happened is a fact and she apologized for it,” Mr. Günal said. “But there is no terrorist background.”
The accused faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The case marks the first terror plot linked directly to the terror militia in Germany, a country that has seen a spate of attacks by Islamist extremist in recent months. Several of these followed a pattern observed around Europe of Islamic State operatives in the Middle East steering supporters remotely.
It also illustrates the growing appeal of radical Islamism among the young. In April, two 16-year-old suspected Islamic State supporters threw an explosive at a Sikh temple in the city of Essen. In France, several teenagers have been arrested in the past months on suspicion of terrorism.
The attacks have sparked an intense debate here about how to better detect and prevent radicalization. Safia S.’s case triggered a law passed this summer lowering the age of suspects who can be monitored by domestic intelligence agencies.
Prosecutors say the accused, born and raised in Germany to a Moroccan mother and German father, embraced the jihadist ideology of Islamic State in November 2015 at the latest. On Jan. 22, she flew to Istanbul and contacted Islamic State operatives there but was stopped from traveling on to Syria by her mother, who brought her back to Germany.
While in Turkey, prosecutors say she was tasked by her Islamic State contacts to carry out an “act of martyrdom” at home. Back in Germany, she asked her contacts for advice through messenger apps, prosecutors say.
Then, on Feb. 26, she confronted a federal police officer outside Hannover’s train station before stabbing him in the neck with a kitchen knife, wounding him seriously. A day before the attack, she had sent a contact a video message pledging allegiance to Islamic State, prosecutors said.
Mr. Günal said chat protocols show she had bragged about her Islamic State connections, but that there was no proof she actually had any. He also doubted she was able to measure the gravity of her act given her age and the “shut-off Islamic life” she had lived from an early age. Safia S.’s mother, who entered the courtroom with her face veiled, was strictly religious, he said. CONTINUE AT SITE
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