Danish court begins trial of girl planning school bombings

A Danish court began trial on Wednesday of a young girl who had been arrested for allegedly planning to blow up two schools, local media reported.

The 17-year-old from the village of Kundby on the island of Zealand was charged with attempted terrorism. She was reportedly planning to blow up her previous school, Sydskolen in Farevejle and a Jewish school in Copenhagen, according to the English newspaper The Copenhagen Post.

The girl, who appeared at Holbaek Court on Wednesday, was arrested in January 2016 after teachers at Sydskolen had alerted the authorities because of her social media posts.

She has since been in custody for the last 15 months.

A senior prosecutor, Kristian Kirk, described it as an "extremely unusual case", according to the paper.

"Firstly, the nature of the case -- these are extremely serious charges. We are dealing with schools and children as targets," Kirk was quoted as saying.

"On top of that, at the time of the alleged crime we are talking about a 15-year-old girl -- a teenager from west Zealand -- who prior to this was unknown to the police," he added.

The prosecution argued that the girl is so dangerous that she ought to be given an indefinite term of imprisonment.

However, the accused insisted she is not guilty and pointed to the fact that the plans were not carried out in practice, according to the paper.

According to Danish law, a person can be imprisoned indefinitely if found guilty of a very serious crime and judged to be a risk to society.

A verdict in the case is expected in May. Endit