RT-Engels: 22-08-2024,
More and more young people are being radicalized, the head of the Swiss Intelligence Service has warned
The level of threat of Islamist terrorism in Switzerland is on the rise and minors are increasingly joining the ranks of Islamists, the head of the Swiss Federal Intelligence Service, Christian Dussey, has warned.
In an interview reported in local media, Dussey admitted that there are significantly more radicalized young people in the country due to what he described as a propaganda campaign by jihadist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
“We have noticed that the problem has become more acute in recent months,” said Dussey. “In Switzerland, we have an above-average number of cases of radicalized young people compared to other European countries,” according to daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger’s quote of the Intelligence Service chief on Thursday.
He noted that in the first six months of this year, about 30 people were arrested in Europe on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks, more than the total for the whole of 2023. Several terrorism-related arrests have been made in the past few weeks alone, Dussey added.
The most likely potential attack in Switzerland would be “that of an act of violence perpetrated by an isolated individual inspired by jihadism,” the spy chief said, citing as an example the stabbing of an Orthodox Jew by a 15-year-old suspect in Zurich in March. The victim sustained serious injuries.