Trial of the alleged perpetrator of the Lugano knife attack
A 29-year-old woman is appearing on Monday for wounding two people with a bread knife in Lugano in November 2020. She claimed to be from the Islamic State group.
The accused had attacked two women in a department store in Lugano in November 2020 (archives).
KEYSTONE/Ti-Press
The alleged perpetrator of the November 2020 knife attack in Lugano is appearing this Monday before the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona. The 29-year-old woman is to answer for attempted murder and breaking the law banning Al-Qaeda and IS groups.
According to the indictment of the Public Ministry of the Confederation (MPC), the accused attacked two women. Claiming to be from the Islamic State (IS) group, she shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is the greatest”) and “I am here for IS”.
Before taking action, the woman went to a Manor department store. She asks a saleswoman which bread knife, among those presented, is the sharpest and chooses a serrated blade of 21 centimeters. She then randomly chose her two victims whom she injured.
One of them suffered a wound at least ten centimeters deep in the neck, as well as various injuries to the face, forearms, wrists and hands. The second woman was hit in the right hand. The most seriously affected woman filed a civil action claiming 440,000 francs.
Contacts with a jihadist
According to the Federal Office of Police (Fedpol), the accused had been in contact for five years with a jihadist fighter with whom she had fallen in love via social networks. She had tried to travel to Syria in 2017, but was stopped at the Syrian-Turkish border and sent back to Switzerland by authorities in Ankara.
Fedpol said two years ago that the woman suffered from psychological problems. She had been admitted to a psychiatric establishment upon her return to Switzerland. She had not been involved in terrorism-related investigations since 2017.
The woman, residing in Ticino, is also accused of prostituting herself between 2017 and 2020 without reporting to the cantonal police. Hearings are scheduled until September 1.
ATS
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