14-year-old boy faces terrorism charges

VIENNA. — A 14-year-old was charged with forming a terrorist organisation and downloading from the Internet bomb-making tutorial with intent to commit a terrorist offense, Austrian authorities confirmed Monday.

The teenager, referred to as “Merkan G,” is accused by the St Poelten prosecutor’s office of downloading exact plans for the construction of a bomb on the Internet, which he then planned to detonate at either the Wien Westbahnhof railway station in Vienna, or along the tracks leading to it, Kronen Zeitung newspaper reported.

Additionally, prosecutor’s office spokesperson Michaela Obenaus said he had become enamored with terrorist militia Islamic State (IS), with authorities finding “countless” IS propaganda photos and videos of beheadings, torture, mass executions and the like on his laptop.

According to the teenager himself, he planned to travel to Syria to take part in IS activities, and is believed to have persuaded a 12-year-old boy to join him. A psychological report on the teenager claims that after coming to Austria with his parents as an asylum seeker in 2007, his father was deported.

Psychologists said the boy has been so deeply radicalised and defends his beliefs. He was first arrested in autumn last year, before being released in mid-November. — Xinhua.

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