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German Teen Convicted for Making Biological Agent Receives Social Training Order

Lack of harmful intent led the juvenile court to impose an educational order.

Overview

  • A court in Riesa on Feb. 25 found the 17-year-old guilty of manufacturing and possessing a biological weapon and of 13 explosives offenses, ordering a social training course instead of custody.
  • Investigators say he produced and stored a mixture of ricin and aconitin at his parents' home, which the Robert Koch Institute assessed as potentially lethal.
  • He admitted the conduct in a closed juvenile proceeding, and prosecutors described him as motivated by experimental curiosity rather than any plan to harm.
  • He bought precursor chemicals online, built 13 homemade pyrotechnic devices, and detonated them in the garden and near the family home.
  • The judgment is not yet legally final, and the case followed a large multiagency search with LKA and RKI specialists at the home last April.