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Authorities in the Czech Republic have detained five teenagers for allegedly being radicalised online by the so-called Islamic State (IS) militant group.
Two of them were charged with terror-related offences over an attempt to set fire to a synagogue last year, officials said on Wednesday.
Břetislav Brejcha, the director of the Czech counterterrorism, extremism and cybercrime department, said most of the suspects were under 18 years old.
They were detained between February and June as a result of an international investigation that began last year.
On 29 January 2024, two of the five tried to set a synagogue on fire in the Czech Republic’s second largest city Brno, Brejcha said, without offering further details.
Czech media reports from February 2024 said two suspects placed a firebomb in front of the synagogue but that it did not explode.
The charges against the two teenagers include hate-related crimes, promotion and support of terrorism and an attempted terror attack.
They and the other detainees were all involved in online groups recruiting fighters for IS militants in Syria, Brejcha said.
Czech authorities worked with their counterparts in Austria, the UK, Slovakia as well as with the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol in the case, he added.
Seven raids took place in the Czech Republic and Austria, in which police seized weapons including knives, machetes and axes.
Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS, said the five suspects shared a fascination with violence and hatred against Jews, LGBTQ+ people and others.
They were approached online by Islamic State members and became radicalised, Koudelka said.
“We consider online radicalisation of the youth a very dangerous trend,” Koudelka said, adding that the suspects had not been in touch with the local Muslim community.
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