Two Swedish nationals aged 18 and 21 have been sentenced to 12 and 14 years in prison respectively for terrorism and attempted murder following an attack on the Israeli embassy in October 2024. This was decided on Tuesday by a jury at Københavns Byret (the Copenhagen City Court).
The attack took place during the night of 2 October 2024, when the two convicted men – then aged 16 and 19 – went to the area around the Israeli embassy in Hellerup. They were carrying five hand grenades and threw two of them in the direction of the embassy. The grenades landed on the balcony of a nearby villa, where they exploded and caused material damage.
The court found that the two men threw the hand grenades with the intention of severely intimidating the Israeli and Danish populations. The act is therefore considered a terrorist attack directed at Israeli interests.
It was further established that the convicted men acted together and following prior agreement with one or more unknown accomplices from a criminal network in Sweden.
“The criminal network acted as an extended arm of a Middle Eastern terrorist organisation in Denmark, with the Israeli embassy selected as the target of the attack. The two perpetrators knew that the grenades were intended to send a signal to Israel. That is why they have now been convicted of terrorism,” says Special Prosecutor Søren Harbo.
In addition to the terrorism convictions, the two men were also convicted of attempted murder of the residents of the villa where the grenades exploded. However, they were acquitted of attempting to endanger the lives of the soldiers guarding the embassy.
As part of the sentence, both men have been expelled from Denmark with a permanent ban on re-entry.
