BELLINZONA: A Swiss woman was given a nine-year jail term on Monday for slashing two people in the name of the militant Islamic State group but her sentence was suspended so she can undergo psychiatric treatment.

The court found the wom­an, who cannot be named for legal reasons, guilty of attempted murder and of terrorism-linked charges.

She had “no respect for human life”, court president Fiorenza Bergomi said as she read out the verdict.

She had “acted in cold blood, had planned her actions and decided what weapon to use, and where to buy it”, Bergomi continued.

The 29-year-old woman’s mental state was at the heart of the trial at Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, in the southern Italian-speaking Ticino region where the attack occurred.

The attack, which did not result in fatalities, took place on November 24, 2020 in the plush Manor department store in Lugano, near Bellinzona. The woman had suddenly lunged at two random women shopping at the store, attempting to slit their throats.One of the two victims suffered a serious neck injury, while the second sustained wounds on one hand and managed, with others, to control the assailant until the police arrived.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2022