A 34-year-old woman from Salzgitter has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for membership of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) and a planned attack on a festival near Hildesheim.
In addition, the Celle Higher Regional Court (OLG) concluded that Marcia M. had allegedly manufactured explosive belts and recruited wives for potential assassins. Before the OLG, Marcia M. had admitted the accusations, as a court spokesperson confirmed. However, the presiding judge reproached her that her confession had only ever been based on the current state of the investigation. “What we lacked was tangible remorse and the insight to have done something wrong.” The judgement is not yet final.
The accused had left Germany for Syria with her husband in September 2015 to join the IS there. She is said to have joined a women’s battalion, to have declared herself ready for suicide attacks and to have undergone shooting trainings. She was also accused of planning attacks on music festivals in Germany; a music festival for children near Frankfurt was said to be under consideration, and a festival in the Hildesheim area might also have been the target of an attack. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the attacks did not take place because the IS fighters selected for the attacks could not leave the country.
The accused had had the idea “that a mass murder of parts of the German population should be committed”, said presiding judge Ralf Günther in his almost two-hour statement of reasons for the sentence. The court was convinced that the 34-year-old’s position within the IS was clearly outstanding in comparison to other IS returnees who had mainly managed their husbands’ households in Syria.
The trial against the 34-year-old had begun in April. According to the spokesperson of the Higher Regional Court, the Attorney General had requested a prison sentence of nine years. The defence, on the other hand, had pleaded for a sentence of “no more than three to four years”.
Anschlag geplant: Achteinhalb Jahre Haft für IS-Rückkehrerin | NDR.de – Nachrichten – Niedersachsen