STOCKHOLM, Jan 21 (Reuters) – A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced a 19-year-old man to seven years and 10 months in prison for planning an attack on a cultural festival in Stockholm on behalf of the Islamic State militant group.
The Stockholm District Court said in a statement that the Syrian-Swedish dual national had intended to carry out an attack in the city-centre’s Kungstradgarden area in August 2025. His sentence included convictions for other crimes, including membership of a terrorist organisation.
“Among other things … he reconnoitred Kungstradgarden and recorded a martyr film that was intended to be published after the crime,” the court said.
“The District Court believes the planned terrorist crime could have seriously harmed Sweden,” it added.
The man, described by prosecutors as “self-radicalised”, denied all the charges against him. He was also found guilty of planning to murder a man in Germany in 2024.
The Stockholm Culture Festival, which was the intended target, drew 2 million visitors over five days last year.
Islamic State, which imposed hardline Islamist rule over millions of people in Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2019, is attempting to stage a comeback after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Simon Johnson and Ros Russell)
