14-Year-old "jihadist" sentenced to jail in Austria

An Austrian court sentenced a 14-year-old boy to two years in prison, not only for his wish to participate in the war in Syria, but also because he apparently had plans to commit terrorist attacks in Vienna.

Austrian national public service broadcaster ORF said on Tuesday that the defendant, a Turkish citizen living in Austria for eight years, must spend at least eight months in prison and can only be released on parole if he sought psychological counseling, reports Efe.

The ruling, which was not yet final, was issued on Tuesday by a regional court in St. Polten, the capital of the Lower Austria, west of Vienna.

Following his parents' divorce, the boy began watching online propaganda videos made by Islamic State seeking to recruit foreign fighters from Western countries, and later decided to travel to Syria to join the group.

Before that, someone told him that he could also participate in "holy war" in Austria, after which the boy surfed the Internet for instructions on how to make bombs and collected logistical information about how to carry out an attack in Westbahnhof, one of the two main railway stations in the Austrian capital.

In view of the boy's apparently growing radicalisation, in late 2014 the boy's school reported him to the police.

He admitted to plotting terrorist attacks during investigations, after which he was arrested and kept in custody.