A court in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on June 15 sentenced a Polish man to a conditional prison sentence of three months, because he stole luggage at Schiphol Airport and pretended to be a terrorist with a bomb.

The wannabe terrorist

The man, who was presumably drunk, told two Royal Military Police officers: "I am a terrorist" and repeated the word "terrorist" again before he was detained. When he was asked whether he had a bomb, he initially said "yes."

The man's lawyer pleaded for an acquittal, arguing that it was not the true intention of the accused to pretend that he carried a bomb. That defense was rejected by the court.

'Incredibly foolish'

The court originally found an unconditional prison sentence reasonable, because it happened a couple of weeks after the terrorist attacks in Brussels and the organization at Schiphol was heavily disrupted as a result of his actions.

Eventually, he was sentenced to a conditional prison sentence because he had no prior convictions, there was no chance of recidivism and it was a one-time, "incredibly foolish" – and probably drunk – action.

The court also took into account that the accused had suffered privately from his actions, losing both his job and his girlfriend.