2015 Kundby bomb plot

The Kundby case was a 2016 plan to bomb two schools in Denmark, including a Jewish school in Copenhagen. The plan was made by a 15-year-old Danish girl from Kundby, Denmark named Natascha Colding-Olsen. The police found chemicals to create a bomb in her home in Kundby.

Background

15-year-old Natascha Colding-Olsen planned to build a bomb to blow up two schools in Denmark: Sydskolen in Fårevejle (near Holbæk), which she previously attended, and Carolineskolen, a Jewish school in Copenhagen.^[1][2] The plotter was 17 at the time of her trial.^[3] An American captain from Iraq warned Denmark, which led to detention of the girl and a 24-year-old Turkish man.^[4] The plotter, a recent convert to Islam, wrote on her Facebook page of her desire to help convert more Danish people to Islam and joined a Facebook page for ISIS supporters.^[5][6][7] Colding-Olsen was described as having undergone a rapid transformation, changing within a few months from a teenager interested in clothes and boys, into a young woman interested in fighting a holy war.^[3] She told the court that she became interested because Islamist ideas and ISIS were "exciting".^[3]

The Turkish man was not charged in the Kundby plot due to insufficient evidence against him,^[8] but in early 2017, when 25 years old, he received a prison sentence, lost his Danish citizenship (he had been a dual national of Turkey and Denmark) and was banned for life from visiting Denmark after being convicted of joining the terror organization ISIS during trips to Syria.^[9][10][11] He was only the second person to lose his Danish citizenship due to terror-related charges.^[10][11]

History

Arrest and detention

On 13 January 2016 police found bomb-making chemicals in the home of the plotter on Trønningevej in Kundby.^[3][1] Colding-Olsen had not succeeded in making a bomb.^[3] The plotter was arrested at 12:22 CET. The court in Holbæk placed her in pre-trial detention.^{[4][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][excessive citations]}

Legal proceedings

On 17 February 2017, charges of terrorism were levied against the girl. She was further charged with violence after she stabbed a pedagogue in the stomach with a glass splinter from a mirror while in detention. The public prosecutor demanded Colding-Olsen be held in custody indefinitely.^{[4][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

The case started on 19 April 2017.^[22] The judgement on the issue of guilt was moved to 16 May 2017 after police found a letter in her prison cell from a man convicted of terrorism.^[4][9] She was sentenced to six years in prison on 18 May 2017.^[23]

The public prosecutor appealed the sentence, demanding a custodial sentence without a definite time limit, stating she was too dangerous to be part of society. Retslægerådet (Danish Justice Physician Council) agreed with the public prosecutors.^[23] On 27 November 2017 Natascha Colding-Olsen received her final sentence of eight years in prison on account of planning of terrorism and physical violence (legemsangreb) for stabbing a pedagogue.^[24][25]

On 10 January 2019, she was additionally sentenced to 40 days in prison for threats against her former mentor during a phone conversation.^[26][27] On 8 May 2019, she was sentenced to 20 further days for a bribery attempt against a police guard who Colding-Olsen had wanted to give her a phone.^[28][29]

See also

• Terrorism in Europe
• List of terrorist incidents in Denmark

References