'ISIS jihadist' who stabbed two women 'would go back and do it better'

Female ‘ISIS jihadist’ who stabbed two women in the neck in a Swiss shop tells attempted murder trial ‘if I could go back I would do it better’

• The woman undergoing psychiatric treatment showed no remorse at her trial
• She is alleged to have attempted to murder two women in the name of ISIS
• The woman, who can’t be named for legal reasons, committed a ‘terrorist attack’
• Attack took place in Manor department store in Lugano, southern Switzerland 
• The 29-year-old says she would ‘go back and do it better… with accomplices’ 

A Swiss woman accused of trying to murder two women in the name of ISIS has said she would go back and do it better with the aid of accomplices if she could.

The 29-year-old woman undergoing psychiatric treatment, who cannot be named for legal reasons, showed no remorse as she went on trial on Monday.

She is accused of committing a ‘terrorist act’ on November 24, 2020 – a knife attack in the plush Manor department store in Lugano, in southern Switzerland’s Italian-speaking Ticino region.

‘If I could go back, I would do it better… with accomplices,’ the accused woman told Switzerland’s Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, also in Ticino. 

It is alleged that she shouted ‘Allahu akbar (God is greatest)’ several times and ‘I will avenge the Prophet Mohammed’, and declared ‘I am here for IS’. 

One of the two victims – who was attending the trial – suffered a serious neck injury, which was shown to the court in a photograph. The second sustained wounds on one hand and managed, with others, to control the assailant until the police arrived.

Having discovered the Islamic State jihadist group on social media, she said she had planned for ‘months, years’ to ‘do something’ for IS and show that she was ‘capable of carrying out a terrorist act’.

The woman is accused of committing a ‘terrorist act’ on November 24, 2020 – a knife attack in the plush Manor department store in Lugano, Switzerland. Pictured: Police walk near the area where the stabbing occurred

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, showed no remorse, saying ‘if I could go back, I would do it better’. Pictured: A police car parked outside the Manor department store 

‘It didn’t go as deeply as I thought,’ the accused woman observed, before repeating: ‘It has no effect on me.’

The accused dressed all in black wearing a long tunic, tights, a hoodie and a face mask

She was insistent on keeping her head covered, saying: ‘I’m Muslim’, before agreeing to lower the hood to comply with court rules.

The accused ‘acted wilfully and with particular ruthlessness’, according to the indictment issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland.

The woman, whose father is Swiss and mother is Serbian, said she suffered epileptic seizures during her early childhood while her adolescence was marked by anorexia. 

She did not go to secondary school but later did work experience as a sales assistant and a hairdresser.

The suspect has been in contact with psychologists and psychiatrists since her childhood. She said she is undergoing treatment while in custody that makes her ‘nervous’.

The 29-year-old is accused of attempting to murder two other women in the name of ISIS in the Lugano region – the Italian-speaking Ticino region in southern Switzerland

The woman became pregnant at 17 by her future husband, a man of Afghan origin, whom she married aged 19 but the pair divorced last year after ‘things went badly’ over the birth of the child.

‘It started well, then things went badly,’ she said, explaining that her husband did not want her to study or have an abortion.

The baby was adopted by her parents because she was unwilling to take care of it herself.

Psychiatrist Carlo Calanchini told the court that the suspect suffers from ‘slight mental retardation’ and disorders similar to schizophrenia, with a particular lack of empathy.

He strongly doubted that she would that she will ever develop a ‘better capacity for judgement’ and estimated that she actually knew very little about jihadism – and much less than anyone who read the newspapers.

The suspect is primarily charged with attempted murder and violation of laws against association with Al-Qaeda, IS and related Islamist groups.

The woman, who was known to the police prior to the Manor attack, is also charged with repeated unlawful prostitution between 2017 and 2020.

After falling in love over social media in 2017 with a jihadist in Syria, she attempted to meet him, but was stopped by Turkish authorities at the Syrian border and sent back to Switzerland, it is alleged.

She was then admitted to a psychiatric clinic, police said.

The trial, being conducted in Italian, is set to last until Thursday, and the verdict is expected on September 19.

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