Polish professor jailed for plot to bomb parliament building

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35159074

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A Polish university lecturer has been sentenced to 13 years in jail for plotting to ram a car packed with explosives into parliament.

Brunon Kwiecien, 48, was convicted of planning a terrorist attack, illegal weapons possession and inciting two students to carry out an attack.

He suggested he had been manipulated by Polish intelligence agents.

Kwiecien was said to be fascinated with Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik.

Right-wing extremist Breivik killed 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in Norway in July 2011.

Kwiecien, a former professor at Krakow's University of Agriculture, was arrested in 2012.

Investigators believe he wanted to target parliament with four tonnes of explosives while then-President Bronislaw Komorowski and former Prime Minister Donald Tusk were due to attend, the trial heard.

"If Brunon Kwiecien hadn't been stopped, we would be talking amid the ruins of the state today," said judge Aleksandra Almert, according to the AFP agency.

While admitting he planned to carry out the attack, he also said he was subject to "provocation" by the intelligence services.

Kwiecien is the first Pole to be accused of terrorism, Polish media reported. He has no known links to established extremist groups.