VIENNA A 14-year-old boy from Austria who downloaded bomb-making plans onto his Playstation games console was sentenced to a two-year jail term on Tuesday after pleading guilty to terrorism charges, a court spokeswoman said.
As well as researching how to build a bomb, the boy made contact with militants supporting the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, prosecutors said ahead of the trial.
Sixteen months of the sentence were suspended. The boy, a Turkish national, will serve what remains of the eight-month custodial term in a juvenile detention center, the spokeswoman for the regional court in Sankt Poelten said.
He had been briefly placed in investigative custody in October on suspicion of terrorism-related activity, before being conditionally released. He was detained for a second time in January.
He had faced up to five years in jail for supporting a terrorist organization and planning an attack.
Those charges were based on data found on the boy's Playstation, including bomb-building plans downloaded from the internet, prosecutors said.
More than 200 people have left Austria to fight in the Middle East, some 30 of whom have been killed while around 70 have returned, according to the interior ministry.
In a separate case, a court in Vienna on Tuesday acquitted a 16-year-old girl accused of preparing to join a jihadi terrorist organization, according to a court spokeswoman.
(Reporting By Shadia Nasralla; editing by John Stonestreet)
MANILA The Philippines' territorial dispute with China over the South China Sea has not caused Manila to rebalance diplomatic ties with either its ally, the United States, or neighboring China, Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay said on Wednesday.
ANKARA Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said he would tell U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington has "no excuse" for not handing over the Pennsylvania-based cleric blamed for last month's failed coup.
BANGKOK Thailand's military government said on Wednesday there was no connection between two bombings overnight that killed one person in the southern town of Pattani and a wave of deadly attacks on tourist spots this month.