A 12 year old boy stabbed six of his classmates at a school just outside Lisbon last week after he had reportedly been viewing Nazi websites.
The boy was subject to a psychological evaluation and public prosecutors opened an investigation. The boy will not face criminal charges, but a family court made the ruling that he will be sent to an education centre as a precautionary measure, where treatment can range from very liberal, to a regime where the child can only leave very occasionally, while supervised, and last up to three years.
The stabbing occured last Tuesday in Azambuja, a town in the Ribatejo region about an hour north-east of Lisbon, after the boy brought a kitchen knife and a bulletproof vest belonging to his father to school, after the lunch brak.
Six children aged between 11 and 14 were injured, including a girl who was left in a serious condition. More than 100 students stayed home when the school opened the next day.
The boy had apparently been looking at Nazi websites for some time and was in the process of falling under the influence of the ideology. Investigators are unable to make a clear link between the searches and the attack, and it is unclear if the boy was influenced by a third party online, or in real life, or whether he had a psychological episode on the day.
One source close to the investigation told the Espresso newspaper the child was psychologically and emotionally unwell.
A lawyer said the parents would not bear any criminal responsibility for the child’s actions.
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