Denmark: Syrian man gets jail for terror planning

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A Syrian asylum seeker in Sweden received Monday a 12-year prison sentence for planning to explode one or more bombs in the Danish capital of Copenhagen and stabbing random people with kitchen knives.

The Copenhagen City Court said Moyed Al Zoebi, 32, acted on behalf of the Islamic State group. The court found him guilty last month.

Throughout the trial, Al Zoebi denied any wrongdoing. He appealed Monday's ruling.

Al Zoebi had an accomplice, Dieab Khadigah, who was sentenced in Germany in July 2017 to a prison term of six-and-a-half years.

After an internet chat, they were to gather in Copenhagen on Nov. 16, 2016 for the attack in an unknown place in the Danish capital.

However, Khadigah was arrested in Germany as he tried to enter Denmark with a backpack containing 17,000 matches, 17 batteries, fireworks, two kitchen knives and six walkie-talkies that Al Zoebi who lives in southern Sweden, had ordered.

Al Zoebi, who Swedish intelligence said sympathized with the Islamic State group, was arrested in December 2017 by Danish police. Earlier that year, Al Zoebi had been acquitted of arson of a Shiite mosque in the southern Swedish city of Malmo.

The three judges and the 12-man jury also ruled Al Zoebi should be expelled from Denmark after serving his time.

In April, the court said the attack was not carried out because Khadigah had been apprehended but that there "clearly" was an attempt to carry out an act of terror.