Danish court: Three teenagers planning an armed attack on Hadsten school arrested under anti-terrorism law

A Danish court has ordered three teenagers to be held in a closed institution after they were accused of planning a terrorist attack on Hadsten School, located in the municipality of Favrskov between Aarhus and Randers.

In TV2's coverage of the event, the legal correspondent commented that the case was not "Islamic terrorism" and that the names of the three young men appeared to be Danish.

The Randers City Court decided to keep three teenagers in a closed juvenile detention facility until August 31, after they were charged with attempting to commit a terrorist act targeting Hadsten Skole in East Jutland, following a court hearing that lasted nearly six hours.

In a statement, the mayor said that the three young men did not belong to the municipality of Favrskov but to outside it, and it was later revealed that the police had arrested one of the accused teenagers in Copenhagen.

It was decided to subject the accused to psychological examinations.

The court also decided to subject the three teenagers to psychological examinations, as part of the legal proceedings related to the case.

The court confirms the existence of justifiable suspicions.

Randers District Court issued its decision Monday evening after a lengthy preliminary hearing, finding that there were reasonable suspicions to believe that the three teenagers, aged 15, 16 and 16, had committed the crime of attempted terrorism under Article 114 of the Danish Penal Code.

Authorities have accused the teenagers of plotting to kill or injure several people inside Hudston School, but the case is still under investigation and no convictions have been issued against them so far.

Investigations indicate the use of online platforms in the planning

According to the indictment, the alleged preparations for the attack took place via the Discord and Telegram platforms.

Police explained that the plan was not carried out, after they arrested the suspects on Monday morning before any attack could take place.

Police carried out an arrest operation for one of the teenagers in the capital, Copenhagen, while the other two were arrested in the East Jutland region.

Those detained are transferred to a closed institution due to their young age.

The court decided to place the three teenagers in pretrial detention in a closed institution for juveniles, known in Denmark as alternative pretrial detention, due to their young ages.

This decision means they will remain in the closed facility until the next court hearing, at which the court will decide whether their detention should continue.

The court based its decision on evidence gathered by the police.

The judge explained in the reasoning behind her decision that she relied on the evidence found during searches of the suspects’ homes, in addition to the content of their accounts on a number of digital platforms, including Discord and TikTok.

The defendants deny the charges against them.

The defense lawyers confirmed that the three teenagers denied all the charges against them.

The 15-year-old's lawyer also explained that his client would appeal the decision to place him in pretrial detention before the Court of Appeal.

One of the teenagers, aged 16, reserved his right to appeal the decision later, while the third young man accepted the court's decision not to appeal it.