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German Teens Convicted for Attack on Sikh Temple

by AFP

File Photo. Timothy A. Clary—AFP

Prosecutors say the three boys were seeking to kill ‘non-believers’, adding there were no indications the attacks was linked to terror groups.

A German court on Tuesday sentenced three teenage boys to up to seven years in juvenile detention over a jihadist attack on an Indian wedding that badly wounded a Sikh priest.

The three extremists, all 16 at the time, set off a homemade bomb in April last year outside a prayer hall where a Sikh community wedding was taking place, also leaving two others with lesser injuries. The youths, who were born in Germany, had met on social media after being radicalized by ultra-fundamentalist Salafist Muslims, and got together to commit the attack in the western city of Essen.

Two of them, identified only as T. and B. because they are minors, were sentenced to seven years and six years and nine months respectively for attempted murder. The third, identified only as I., was given six years for complicity.

Prosecutors charge they had sought to kill “non-believers” with a device they had built from a fire extinguisher shell and chemicals ordered from online shopping site Amazon. The power of the blast destroyed the door of the temple and blew out window frames. A priest was left with a fractured foot bone and has been unable to resume his ministry, said the court.

Two other people suffered superficial cuts.

“The motive of the attack was hatred against other religions. The accused were already radicalized before the act,” said the court in a statement. There were no indications that the attack was linked to the Islamic State group, it added.

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