A 16-year-old Danish boy has been sentenced to five years and six months' unconditional imprisonment for his role in domestic terrorism.
Among other things, the teenager was found to have shared bomb manuals, helped write a manifesto for a right-wing extremist group called Feuerkrieg Division and recruited schoolmates to the group.
The strikingly long prison sentence for a minor stems from the fact that the Danish Parliament decided in 2020 to increase penalties for terrorism, extending the sentences by 50 percent. However, the severity of the penalty is all the more surprising given that the 16-year-old was not found guilty on the main point of the case which was whether he had allowed himself to be recruited into the terrorist organization.
The verdict is said to be unprecedented in Danish history.
"It is a punishment that can be felt. It is a judgment we have not seen before in Danish legal history," legal expert Astrid Sondberg said about the verdict.
Despite the fact that the teenager was in possession of a large number of bomb and weapons manuals, the court didn't believe he actually tried to make any himself. In his diary, though, the 16-year-old wrote that he supported acts of terrorism. And in closed chats, he talked about committing physical acts at a later stage that would be newsworthy. The teenager was also found to have radicalized his mates by distributing graphic content of people getting shot.
Feuerkrieg Division has been described as a small, international neo-Nazi organization based on a desire for white supremacy. It is rooted in the so-called Siege movement which received its name from a series of essays by US neo-Nazi James Mason detailing a white supremacist worldview. According to Europol, Siege still serves as an inspiration for fellow neo-Nazi organizations, including the pan-Scandinavian Nordic Resistance Movement.