On Tuesday, a nineteen-year-old Afghan terrorist, who stabbed two American tourists at Amsterdam’s Central Station in August, told the court that he has no remorse and would do it again.
The attack, carried out on August 31, left two Americans injured, one of whom may be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
The terrorist, who has a German residency permit and filed for asylum three years ago, said he came to the Netherlands to carry out the attack because he believed Islam was being insulted due to Dutch MP Geert Wilders’ cartoon competition to draw the Muslim prophet Muhammad, according to Dutch News.
“Why did you allow this pig to hold a cartoon competition about our prophet Muhammad?” the terrorist asked at a procedural hearing, according to the Daily Mail.
The day before the attack, Wilders reportedly canceled the competition for fear of a terrorist attack.
Prior to the attack, the terrorist allegedly told his roommates at an asylum center in Germany about his plans to show those in Amsterdam “how Allah takes revenge.”
The terrorist reportedly had a video on his phone of Taliban members singing a song about killing and burning those who insult the prophet Muhammad and had posts on social media of photos and videos threatening Wilders.
“If he does it again, then I will do it again and again,” the terrorist said. “I will accept the challenge he has offered me.”
He also told the court that if “[Wilders] goes somewhere, I will kill him.”
The terrorist reportedly wanted to be seen as a martyr and did not expect to survive.
The lawyer of the terrorist, Simon van der Woude, said the terrorist’s parents died and that four things are important to him: “Allah, Islam, the Quran, and the Prophet Muhammad.”
Amsterdam police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said that prior to the attack, an officer in the station was calling over colleagues and preparing to question the terrorist for “strange behavior” when he stabbed one of the Americans in the back with a knife.
“While they are working out how to go and talk to him, they see he starts stabbing,” Aalbersberg said on Dutch TV.
Nine seconds later, the terrorist stabbed another and then was shot in the hip by police. He was carrying one knife and had another in his rucksack.
The terrorist has been transferred from a high-security prison in Vught to the Pieter Baan centre for psychiatric observation.
Both of the American victims are 38 years old and remain unidentified but told the court that they are scarred for life.
The lawyer of one of the American victims, who may spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair due to spinal injuries from the attack, told the court that “his life, and that of his wife, has been ruined” because he can no longer work and needs constant care from others.
The other victim, who was stabbed in the arm, is back at work but finds it difficult to hold things.
Both victims plan to attend a full trial later this year, according to their lawyer.