German court jails two Afghans for planning attack on Swedish parliament

Berlin: Two Afghan nationals, aged 30 and 24, have been handed prison sentences in Germany for planning an attack on the Swedish parliament and for supporting the Islamic State militant organisation, a regional court said on Thursday.

The older man, named only as Ibrahim MG, was handed five years and six months in prison, while 24-year-old Ramin N was sentenced to four years and two months. The sentences are subject to appeal, the court in Thuringia said.

The men were detained in March 2024 in the eastern German city of Gera on suspicion of planning to kill police officers and other people using firearms in the area around the Swedish parliament in Stockholm.

Ibrahim MG and Ramin N researched the location and travel online and unsuccessfully travelled to the Czech Republic to obtain weapons. On their return to Germany, their phones were seized by border police, prompting them to abandon the plan.

The men joined IS Khorasan Province, described by the court as a "particularly dangerous" branch of the Islamist group, and collected donations for wives and children of IS members at the Al-Hol camp in northeast Syria, the court said in a statement.

It said Ibrahim MG made a full confession, but did not specify how Ramin N pleaded.

A series of Koran burnings in Sweden in 2023 - an act protected by the country's far-reaching freedom of speech laws - sparked outrage in Sweden's Muslim community and led to violent clashes, including the storming and vandalisation of Sweden's embassy in Baghdad.