Swedish man locked up for plotting chemical terror attack on Eurovision

Assistant Prosecutor David Lentz had sought a 12-year sentence in July, arguing that only the action by Luxembourg’s police and intelligence services helped prevent mass casualties.

The man was arrested in February 2020 after Luxembourgish authorities uncovered a professionally equipped bomb workshop in the basement of his father’s home in Strassen, central Luxembourg.

Investigators found TATP, nitroglycerine, a functional pipe bomb and a parcel bomb addressed to a Swedish film company. A French explosives expert told the court he had never seen a more advanced setup in a terrorism case.

According to the court, the defendant — then aged 18 — had spent months preparing attacks in Sweden and the Netherlands, including a planned mass-casualty assault on the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, which was later canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Investigators discovered a Google document titled “Fun time for Eurovision 2020 — For a better and less over-accepting future,” co-authored with an alleged Dutch accomplice, outlining plans to poison attendees with cyanide or ricin, release chlorine gas, or disperse chemicals through ventilation systems or custom-built rockets, national TV channel RTL reported in July. Police later confirmed the seizure of chlorine-production materials and rocket prototypes.

The pair also explored ways to infiltrate security teams, block emergency exits and conduct secondary attacks, including a planned strike on an oil depot in Nacka, Sweden, for which the defendant had already mapped weak points in the site’s perimeter fence.