Two Afghan men have been convicted in Germany of planning to kill Swedish MPs

A German court has sentenced two Afghan men to prison for planning an attack on the Swedish parliament in response to Quran burnings in the country. They were found guilty of supporting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and conspiracy to commit murder, the Thuringian Higher Regional Court said in a statement on Thursday.

Ibrahim MG, aged 30, was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, while Ramin N., 24, was given a sentence of four years and two months, according to the court document.

"The defendants, who entered Germany in 2015 and 2016, identified with the ideology of the so-called Islamic State (IS)," the statement read. "They shared IS's worldview and supported the violent approach of this terrorist organization," it added.

According to the court, the defendants planned the attack in response to Quran burnings in Sweden. They intended to use firearms to kill members of parliament and people who would oppose their attack. The men researched locations in Stockholm, travel routes to Sweden, and ways to acquire weapons online.

The suspects, who had been monitored by law enforcement, were arrested in March 2024 after attempting to acquire firearms on the black market in the Czech Republic.

Apart from planning the attack, Ibrahim MG, who was a member of Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), a regional branch of IS, transferred money to aid the women and children of IS militants in a refugee camp in Syria, the court added.

In determining the sentence, the court considered the defendants' confessions and the fact that they had no previous convictions. The verdict is not yet final as the Federal Court of Justice will have to decide on an appeal.

Sweden has witnessed a spate of Quran-burning incidents in recent years, with similar protests taking place in neighboring Norway and Denmark. The incidents led to angry protests in several Muslim-majority countries.

Swedish authorities have condemned the burnings, but still largely allowed them to go ahead, citing the country's laws guaranteeing the right to freedom of expression.

Many Muslim-majority countries have condemned the incidents as Islamophobic, and Trkiye even threatened Sweden with blocking its NATO accession plans. Ankara later ratified the bid however, and the Nordic country was formally admitted to the US-led military bloc in March 2024.

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Stockholm said in 2023 that it planned to amend the Public Order Act in order to prevent Quran-burning incidents in the future. However, no legislative changes have been implemented to date.