Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Stockholm suspect 'admits truck attack'

The Stockholm truck attack suspect has confessed to a "terrorist crime", his lawyer says.

The admission came at a custody hearing in the Swedish capital.

Rakhmat Akilov, 39 from Uzbekistan, admitted responsibility for the attack in court.

Four people were killed when a lorry was driven into a department store on Friday. A number of people were also injured, including two who are in a critical condition.

"His position is that he admits to a terrorist crime and accepts therefore that he will be detained," said lawyer Johan Eriksson.

Rakhmat Akilov: Who is the truck attack suspect?

Eyewitnesses: Lorry was 'trying to hit people'

Mr Akilov was brought into court in handcuffs.

Security was tight and the press gallery was full, according to a BBC correspondent at the court session, which was conducted behind closed doors.

Mr Akilov was wearing green overalls and was told to remove a green blanket from his head before the hearing started.

Swedish police said Mr Akilov was known to security services.

He had been denied residency in Sweden and had expressed sympathy for so-called Islamic State (IS), they said.

He reportedly ran from the scene of the attack, still covered in blood and glass, and was arrested hours later in a northern suburb of Stockholm.

According to reports, he had left a wife and four children behind in Uzbekistan in order to earn money to send home.

After applying for residency in 2014, he was informed in December 2016 that "he had four weeks to leave the country", police official Jonas Hysing said.

He disappeared and, in February, was officially put on a wanted list.

Responding to the attack, Swedish Justice Minister Morgan Johansson said he wanted to toughen the nation's terrorism laws.

In an interview with AFP published on Monday, Mr Johansson specifically mentioned tackling the financing of terrorism and potential prison sentences for those "dedicated to terrorism even if not connected to a specific crime".

"We want to give the police the opportunity, without concrete suspicion of a crime, to go into workplaces to make sure that people who work there are in Sweden [legally]," he added.

The beer company that owned the lorry said it was hijacked while making a delivery to a restaurant.

Eyewitnesses said it sped down Drottninggatan (Queen Street), a central shopping street, and appeared to be deliberately mowing people down.

The vehicle then crashed into the front of the Ahlens department store.

Police later confirmed they discovered a suspect device inside the lorry.

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