A German court sentences 2 Afghans to prison for plotting to attack the Swedish parliament

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BERLIN (AP) — A German court sentenced two Afghan men to several years in prison on Thursday for planning an attack on the Swedish parliament and killing lawmakers in response to the burning of copies of the Quran, German news agency dpa reported.

The Jena Higher Regional Court found the men guilty of, among other things, membership or support of a terrorist organization abroad and conspiracy to commit murder.

The court handed one of them, aged 30, a prison sentence of five years and six months and the other, aged 24, a term of four years and two months, dpa reported without further identifying the two men. The sentences can still be appealed.

Before their arrest, both men lived in Gera in the eastern German state of Thuringia, were friends, and had become radicalized by online propaganda from the Islamic State group, dpa reported.

The men were arrested in March on their way back from the Czech Republic, where they had tried unsuccessfully to obtain firearms for the attack. According to the court, they had been under surveillance for some time.

Previously, German authorities identified the two men as Ibrahim M.G. and Ramin N.