Overview
- Berlin’s Higher Regional Court convicted the defendant of preparing a serious state-endangering violent act, instructing others to commit such an act, and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.
- Judges said he studied bomb-making guides and considered targets, with the indictment noting the Israeli embassy, before abandoning the plan when key components proved unobtainable.
- He translated Islamic State propaganda into Russian and Chechen and prepared to leave Germany for Afghanistan to join the group, before being arrested at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport on February 20, 2025.
- Presiding judge Gregor Herb said the crimes showed internalization of IS ideology and a striking lack of empathy, even as the court treated him as an adolescent offender.
- The judgment is not yet final, with prosecutors having sought three and a half years and the defense arguing for two and a half.