Swedish man gets 2 years in prison for planned terrorist attack on Eurovision Rotterdam
The court in Luxembourg City sentenced a 23-year-old Swedish man to eight years in prison, six of which are conditionally suspended, for preparing a terrorist attack at the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam in 2020. One of the conditions for the suspended sentence is that he completes a deradicalization program within five years, sending reports on his progress to the authorities every six months, the local newspaper Wort reported.
The court found Alexander H. guilty of participating in a terrorist organization and violating Luxembourg’s firearm law and European explosives legislation. Luxembourg courts usually explain the reasoning after the sentencing. The explanation is expected in the coming week.
The prosecutor had recommended a 12-year prison sentence against H. Both the prosecutor and H. have 40 days to appeal. H. did not attend the sentencing.
Luxembourg foiled the planned attack by arresting H. in February 2020, a mere 80 days before the Eurovision Song Contest was set to happen in Ahoy Rotterdam. The event was eventually postponed by a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Swedish broadcaster SVT reported that H. was part of an eco-fascist group that burned down a mink farm in 2019. He later became a member of The Base, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that also has ties to criminal suspects in the Netherlands.
Over the summer, it emerged that Rotterdam’s leadership was unaware of the terrorist plot that threatened the marquee event. The city’s political leadership also was not made aware of the threat at a later date, Parool reported this past July.
Dutch broadcaster AvroTros and public broadcast organization NPO also did not know about the terrorist plot. The two were responsible for hosting the event and aspects of local planning as the Dutch rights holder to the Eurovision contest.
“Of course, we were deeply shocked by this,” said the spokesperson for the NPO in July. “We only became aware of this case through recent media reports. This threat was not known to us at the time.”
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Rotterdam initially also said that it was unaware of the attack plan, but later retracted that statement. Luxembourg authorities had contacted the Netherlands regarding a Dutch accomplice of H., Florian D. The two men had documented the attack plans together. That document was titled: “Fun time for Eurovision 2020 – For a better and less over-accepting future.”
The Dutch police questioned Florian D., but did not arrest him. According to the OM, D. did not actually intend to carry out an attack.
