BERLIN // A 16-year-old girl who stabbed a policeman at a train station in Hanover was acting under orders from ISIL, German federal prosecutors said on Monday.
Safia S, a German-Moroccan dual citizen who is in prison awaiting trial, was charged with attempted murder and with being a supporter of the extremist group, prosecutors said.
She travelled to Istanbul in January, where she met members of the group who planned to help her enter ISIL-controlled territory in Syria.
While in Istanbul, she received orders from ISIL members to carry out a “martyrdom attack” in Germany, prosecutors said.
She stabbed and seriously wounded the policeman in February after she was brought back to Germany by her mother.
After being returned to Germany, Safia contacted ISIL members online and asked them to help her plan an attack, according to prosecutors.
They said a 19-year-old Syrian-German who knew about the plan and who is also in custody was charged with failing to report a crime. No date for their trials has been set.
The Hanover stabbing preceded attacks against civilians in Germany in late July, including two claimed by ISIL in which only the assailants died.
Those attacks put the relatively liberal migration policies implemented by Chancellor Angela Merkel back in the spotlight and prompted her government to draft plans to increase spending on security.
* Reuters