Stockholm truck attacker admits to committing ‘terrorist crime’
Print Edition
SUSPECTED Stockholm truck attacker Rakhmat Akilov, a 39-year-old Uzbek and jihadist sympathizer, admitted yesterday to committing a “terrorist crime” by mowing down pedestrians on a busy street, killing four people and injuring 15 others.
“Akilov confesses to a terrorist crime and accepts his custody detention,” his lawyer Johan Eriksson told a custody hearing in a Stockholm district court.
Arrested in a Stockholm suburb hours after Friday’s attack, Akilov appeared in a special heavily-guarded high-security courtroom. Handcuffed and wearing a thick green hoodie over his head.
Judge Malou Lindblom ordered him to remove the hoodie and he complied. Akilov, a Russian speaker, had an interpreter at his side to help him follow the proceedings.
After Eriksson’s statement, the judge agreed to the prosecution’s request to have the rest of the hearing held behind closed doors due to the classified nature of the information in the investigation.
After about an hour, journalists were readmitted into the courtroom and the judge remanded Akilov in custody.
Court papers showed Akilov, who is facing a lengthy prison sentence, had requested that his state-appointed lawyer Eriksson be replaced by a Sunni Muslim, saying “only a lawyer of this faith could assert his interests in the best way.” The court refused the request.
The four people killed in the attack were two Swedes — one woman and an 11-year-old girl — a British man, and a Belgian woman.
Eight people were still in hospital yesterday, including two in a critical condition.
Akilov, a construction worker who was refused permanent residency in Sweden in June 2016, went underground last year after receiving a deportation order, police said.
Friday’s attack resembled previous rampages using vehicles in Nice, Berlin and London, which were all claimed by the Islamic State.
IS has not claimed responsibility for the Stockholm attack, but media reports on Monday said Akilov had told investigators that he had received an “order” from IS to carry out the attack against “infidels.”
The Aftonbladet newspaper reported that he had said he was “pleased with what he had done.”
“I mowed down the infidels,” Aftonbladet quoted him as saying, citing sources close to the investigation and describing him as a father of four whose family is in Uzbekistan.
Deputy chief prosecutor Hans Ihrman refused to comment on the suspect’s motive, while Eriksson would only say that his client had told police why he committed the attack.
Eriksson said the court had ordered Akilov to undergo a psychiatric evaluation as a standard procedure, and that a confession alone would not lead to a conviction.
Police have previously said they are sure the suspect is the driver of the truck, citing technical evidence and video camera surveillance images.
Prosecutors said yesterday that a second man arrested on Sunday would not be remanded, but he would not be released due to a previous deportation order against him.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
