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Three "jihadist" teenagers convicted in Germany
Apr 3, 2009, 18:49 GMT
Cologne, Germany - Three self-styled jihadist teenagers who ambushed German police officers were convicted Friday of attempted robbery and conspiracy to commit a crime by a court in Cologne, Germany.
One, aged 18, was sentenced to three years of youth detention, while a 17- and 15-year-old had their respective 9-month and 18-month youth-detention sentences suspended.
The bizarre, terrorist-style ambush in September last year by the teenage Islamists on the outskirts of Cologne rattled city police at first, but prosecutors and police later played down the incident, saying the Muslim boys were just wayward youths, not terrorists.
Two officers were lured to the scene with a phone call saying someone was in trouble. The trio, wielding replica guns, then jumped out at the officers. But the police fired warning shots over the heads of the youths and the trio took to their heels.
The youths had been aiming to steal the officers' guns for a later terrorist-style attack on a US military facility in Germany. When they were arrested, the boys described themselves as 'mujahedin.'
The convictions were announced by a Cologne court spokesman after the trial, which was closed to the public and the media because of the defendants' ages.
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